{"id":11398,"date":"2019-07-16T19:03:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T19:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/?page_id=11398"},"modified":"2025-03-25T18:22:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T18:22:46","slug":"summer-meals","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/what-we-do\/summer-meals\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Meals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Summer is one of the hungriest times of the year for low income kids and families. While summer meal programs aim to alleviate this, only 15% of children who qualify for free or reduced-price meals at school also receive meals during the summer months.<\/p>\n<p>Funded by the USDA, summer meals are served by organizations like schools, libraries, faith-based organizations, and community groups, who all help make sure that kids under age 18 have access to nutritious meals at no cost when school is out of session.<\/p>\n<p><strong>To find a summer meals site near you, text FOOD to 877-877, call 211, or visit <a href=\"http:\/\/MDsummermeals.org\">MDsummermeals.org<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Benefits of Summer Meals<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Summer Meals Keep Kids Learning:<\/strong>\u00a0 Nutritious food not only supports better cognitive functioning in the summer, it also positions children from low-income families to learn and perform well once they return to the classroom.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Summer Meals Keep Kids Healthy:\u00a0 <\/strong>With access to nutritious summer meals, children from low-income families are less likely to suffer from food insecurity and are less likely to resort to less healthy, but easily accessible, food options associated with obesity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Summer Meals Keep Kids Safe:<\/strong>\u00a0 Summer meals sites provide a safe area for kids to interact with peers and participate in group activities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sites are eligible to serve summer meals when at least half of the community&#8217;s students are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals.<\/p>\n<p>Need help figuring out if a summer meal site or day care home is eligible according to USDA policy? Use No Kid Hungry\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/bestpractices.nokidhungry.org\/Averaged-Eligibility-Map\"><em>Averaged Eligibility Map<\/em><\/a>!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/resources\/?options&amp;opt2=summermeals\">View No Kid Hungry&#8217;s Summer Meals Resources<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-184 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/03\/Image-11-300x100.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"597\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/03\/Image-11-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/03\/Image-11-768x256.jpg 768w, https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/03\/Image-11-1024x341.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/03\/Image-11.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summer is one of the hungriest times of the year for low income kids and families. While summer meal programs aim to alleviate this, only 15% of children who qualify&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":12448,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11398","page","type-page","status-publish"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Summer Meals - MARYLAND<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/what-we-do\/summer-meals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Summer Meals - MARYLAND\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Summer is one of the hungriest times of the year for low income kids and families. While summer meal programs aim to alleviate this, only 15% of children who qualify...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/what-we-do\/summer-meals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MARYLAND\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-25T18:22:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/03\/Image-11-300x100.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/what-we-do\/summer-meals\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/what-we-do\/summer-meals\/\",\"name\":\"Summer Meals - MARYLAND\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nkh-state-nkh-state.pantheonsite.io\/maryland\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-16T19:03:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-25T18:22:46+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/what-we-do\/summer-meals\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/what-we-do\/summer-meals\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/what-we-do\/summer-meals\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"What We Do\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/what-we-do\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Summer Meals\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nkh-state-nkh-state.pantheonsite.io\/maryland\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nkh-state-nkh-state.pantheonsite.io\/maryland\/\",\"name\":\"MARYLAND\",\"description\":\"No Kid Hungry Maryland\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nkh-state-nkh-state.pantheonsite.io\/maryland\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Summer Meals - MARYLAND","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/state.nokidhungry.org\/maryland\/what-we-do\/summer-meals\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Summer Meals - MARYLAND","og_description":"Summer is one of the hungriest times of the year for low income kids and families. 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