Act Now to Offer Summer Meals

It's time to plan your summer meal program and ensure kids 18 years old and younger in your area have access to free meals when school is out. As with meals during the school year, CKC simplifies summer meals and supports you along the way.

While Minnesota's new Free School Meals Program officially takes effect July 1, summer meals continue to be reimbursed through two USDA programs:

• Seamless Summer Option (SSO), for schools serving meals under the National School Lunch Program during the school year. It's "seamless" because it allows schools to follow the same operational and nutritional guidelines during the summer that they abide by during the school year.
• Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), which is for schools, nonprofit organizations, youth enrichment programs, day camps and the like. SFSP is the primary program for summer, provides a higher reimbursement rate and has looser nutritional guidelines than the NSLP/SSO.

(The USDA compares the two programs in this document.)

In both programs, sites are designated either "open" or "enrolled" sites. "Open" sites provide food to any kids 18 years old and younger in area-eligible locations; "enrolled" sites provide food only to kids registered in youth enrichment programming through the feeding-site organization. In both cases, kids must eat meals in groups at the site location.

Summer meal programs are administered by "sponsors" while food is provided at "feeding sites." Sponsors can oversee multiple feeding sites. If you'd like to be SFSP feeding site and do not have a sponsoring organization to administer your program, we recommend partnering with Youthprise Nutrition Program, which oversees many sites throughout the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

According to No Kid Hungry, "Summer meal programs are also harder to find. Many parents simply don't know these resources are there for their children." No Kid Hungry runs a free texting service that helps families find meals in their neighborhoods. Parents and caregivers simply text the word "FOOD" to 304-304 to see all the nearby options. (The service is also available in Spanish by texting the word "COMIDA" instead.)

Important Deadlines

• New SFSP applicants: application are due May 1.
• Returning SFSP applicants: applications are due May 15 or 15 days prior to the first day of operation, whichever is earlier.

(See MDE's application webpage.)

Resources for Summer Meals

• Open Site Program Flyer template (courtesy of our sister company, NutriStudents K-12)
• Open Site Program Bookmark template (courtesy of NutriStudents K-12)
• MDE's Outreach and Promotion webpage
• USDA Promotional Resources