Summer meal programs in California have grown in recent years, reaching more children that need access to summer nutrition. In 2024, summer meal sponsors served more than 14 million meals across California. More sponsors are stepping up, sites are expanding, and the number of meals provided continues to rise, ensuring that kids across our communities have access to nutritious food even when school is out. This progress is made possible by the dedication of schools, community organizations, and volunteers committed to ending childhood hunger.
To continue supporting these efforts and help new sponsors get involved, No Kid Hungry California has compiled a comprehensive roundup of new and updated resources to guide summer meal programs.
For New Sponsors
- Summer Meals Fact Sheet – This resource is an overview of the need for summer meals, basic facts about the program, and ways both individuals and organizations can get involved.
- Summer Food Service Overview – This resource provides key facts about the Summer Food Service Program for school districts and community sponsors considering program sponsorship or other direct involvement in the delivery of the program.
- 2025 Summer Impact Report – Learn how new summer nutrition programs are transforming access to food for millions of children, especially in rural and low-income communities, by providing flexible meal options, grocery benefits, and expanded support for families facing summer hunger.
Mapping & Area Eligibility:
- Navigating Area Eligibility In Summer And Afterschool Meals – Determining if your site is area eligible can be complicated. This resource provides information on how to determine if a site is area eligible, the types of data that can be used to make that determination, and options for meal service if a site is not area eligible.
- No Kid Hungry Summer Meals Eligibility Map – This map will show you if your summer meal site or day care home is located in an area eligible location based on the USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s averaging policy.
- Rural Summer Meal Coverage Tool – This map shows whether your area meets USDA’s rural criteria to qualify for non-congregate summer meals, while highlighting high need areas and summer meal eligibility.
- USDA | Capacity Builder Map– This map has additional layers of information (e.g., community sites, Census data) beyond eligibility that may be useful in identifying where sites could/should go and potential partners working in the space.
- USDA | Summer Meals for Kids Site Finder – USDA’s Summer Meals for Kids Site Finder helps families locate free summer meal sites, including Eat On-Site and Meals To-Go options, for children 18 and under across the country.
Staffing
- Tips For Staffing Summer Meals Programs – No Kid Hungry gathered advice from summer nutrition heroes who have found innovative ways to ensure that their programs stay afloat in the summertime with passionate and dedicated staff.
- The Summer Meals Student Workforce Toolkit – This toolkit serves as a comprehensive guide for recruiting, training, and managing student workers in summer meals programs.
- Benefits of Hiring Student Workers in Summer Non-Congregate Programs – Learn how No Kid Hungry summer meal sponsors and grantees used high school and college student workers to expand capacity, improve outreach, reduce stigma, and strengthen their 2024 non-congregate summer meal programs.
- Staffing Up: Strategies for Working Through Labor Shortage Challenges – Learn how school districts nationwide are using innovative strategies to overcome labor and supply shortages and successfully staff their operations during challenging times.
Menus
- Multi-Day Menu Planning: Considerations for Rural Non-Congregate Summer Service – Learn how rural sponsors can use the flexible non-congregate summer meal option to provide multi-day meal service to children, with practical guidance on planning, storage, packaging, and meal components.
- How to Offer Bulk Meals During the Summer Months – Learn how bulk meal service, offering minimally prepared ingredients, provides families with greater convenience and choice in summer programs.
- FRAC | A How-To Guide for Summer Food Sponsors on Purchasing High-Quality Summer Meals – Developed by the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), this guide helps summer food sponsors improve meal quality by strengthening contract language, enhancing vendor communication, increasing bid competition, and offering tips for advocates supporting this work.
Implementation
- Successful Non-Congregate Meal Service Models for Rural Areas: Implementation Guide – This resource outlines effective non-congregate meal service models. Use this guide to find strategies and tactics to execute a successful non-congregate summer meals program in your rural community.
- Proactive Planning for Summer Meals Sponsors – Learn how a year-round planning approach, supported by a detailed month-by-month guide, can help sponsors strengthen, sustain, and expand their summer meals programs.
- Sponsor Guide: Supporting Summer Meal Access For Immigrant Communities – Learn how to better support and reassure immigrant families so they feel safe participating in non-congregate summer meals programs.
- Managing Costs In School Nutrition Programs – This resource features tips for cutting costs and generating revenue, without sacrificing program quality. Learn tips and strategies for cutting food and labor costs along with tips for increasing your program’s revenue generation.
- Gathering Feedback from Families: Using a Survey to Inform Meal Service – Asking families for their feedback about meal service can help you make informed decisions for your program and ultimately increase participation. This resource details the use of a survey to gather feedback from families. Within this resource you will find general guidance and a link to a sample survey so that you can see those recommendations in action.
- Summer Meals Outreach Toolkit – This toolkit provides ready-to-use, customizable materials in English and Spanish to help sponsors promote summer meals for children and teens, including social media posts, flyers, and posters for non-congregate programs.
The growth of summer meal programs in California shows what’s possible when communities come together to feed kids. No Kid Hungry California is proud to support sponsors, volunteers, and organizations with the tools and resources they need to make summer meals a success.
No Kid Hungry’s Center for Best Practices is a hub of information, tools, and resources dedicated to ending childhood hunger. Our dedicated team supports stakeholders by providing guidance, conducting research and analysis, and testing innovative approaches to identify emerging best practices. Explore upcoming and on-demand webinars, toolkits, research, data, and more on their website.
Last update: January 9, 2026
