Summer Meals
Voice of Experience
A great example of a summer feeding program in St. Cloud, Minnesota, by one of our partners.
Hear Yes Network leader, Jerry Sparby on serving kids locally shares his approach and experience. (video, 02:38)
MINNESOTA RANKS HIGH, BUT WITH A LOW PERCENTAGE
The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is a U.S. Department of Agriculture program administered by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE). The program reimburses food providers who serve healthy meals to children and teens in low-income areas in the summer.
Minnesota ranks 16th among 50 states in feeding children in the summer, with only 20 percent of school-age kids participating in the SFSP in 2019.
Challenges
Good nutrition can be especially hard during the summer months for children who have relied on schools for meals. Food access can suddenly become a challenge.
Federal investigation of alleged fraud among select meal sponsors, providers, and meals claimed will impact SFSP through 2022.
Our approach
Partnering with the Minnesota Department of Education, we created mobile app that you can download at Apple App or Goggle Play stores.
More details about the app can be found on our app page.
If you want to be listed on the app, or want to add locations to the app, e-mail: info@hungerimpactpartners.org.
Sponsors who need to update their information can visit this page on our site,
Our Goal
With the help of our app, our aim is to provide 2 million more meals.
The Free Meals for Kids mobile app was adapted in 2020 from our Summer Eats Minnesota app.
We expanded its functions to include meal program guidelines for sponsors and community food resources.
We also added “push” notifications to every user experience, including alerts for community events for food distributions.
We dedicated graphic space for targeted messaging for families to take advantage of the special supports like the Pandemic EBT or educational benefit enrollment for school-age children.
There were more than 2,000 sites listed on the Free Meals for Kids mobile app by May 2021.
We coordinated with county health departments, the Minnesota Department of Education and our established network of partners to support promotion and outreach so more families could access meals at locations through the app.
