PRESS RELEASE
June 25, 2026
No Kid Hungry Arizona Grants Over $95k to Combat Summer Hunger in Rural Communities Across the State
Summer Meals Program Provides Economic Relief for Rural Families Facing Financial Hardship Due to Loss of Free and Reduced Priced School Meals
Contact: Laura Rice, lrice@strength.org
Phoenix, AZ — When schools close their doors for the summer break, many kids find themselves without access to the reliable nutrition provided by school meals. The 1 in 5 kids in Arizona who experience food insecurity often face the hungriest season of the year during the summer months. No Kid Hungry Arizona is working to change that by providing a total of $95,711 in grants–made in coordination with the Arizona Food Bank Network–to eight organizations across the state to help reach more kids in rural communities with summer meals.
The following school districts and community organizations received summer meal grants from No Kid Hungry Arizona:
The following organizations are receiving support this year:
- Arlington Elementary School
- Hayden Winkelman Unified School District
- Laveen Elementary District
- Morristown Elementary School District
- Page Unified School District #8
- Topock Elementary School
- Young Public School District 5
- Yuma Union High School District No. 70
Rural communities face particular challenges when it comes to accessing summer meal programs. Transportation issues, work schedules, extreme weather–all can pose significant hardship to families when it comes to connecting kids to summer meals. Traditional summer meal programs have only reached a fraction of kids in rural communities, but non-congregate summer meal flexibilities have been a game changer in recent years. No Kid Hungry’s grant funding supports summer meal programs that make meals more accessible for rural families by delivering meals to children who need them or allowing parents to pick meals up at a central location to be taken home for their kids, often for multiple days at a time.
“The tremendous growth in summer meal programs across the state since the non-congregate option became available shows that Arizona families have embraced its flexibility. As a result, summer meals are reaching more Arizona kids than ever before,” says Allison Dela Cuesta, associate director of No Kid Hungry.
For help finding a Summer Meal site, visit NoKidHungry.org/Help or /Ayuda. The program is available to all children 18 years and under.
Check out our spotlight on Scottsdale Unified School District to learn more on just how impactful summer non-congregate is for communities across Arizona.
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About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But millions of kids in the United States live with hunger. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty. Join us at NoKidHungry.org.
