It’s that time of year! For many kids across the Commonwealth, school is out and summer is here. And with summer break comes summer meals. School divisions and community organizations are excited and eager to feed their students this summer. However, due to programmatic changes at the federal level, meals this summer may look different than they have over the last 2 years. To help providers and families adjust to this transition, we’ve developed multiple resources to make sure that kids have access to the food that they need to thrive.
🚨Summer Meals Texting Hotline Update: The Summer Meals Texting Hotline Number is CHANGING!🚨
-  No Kid Hungry’s summer meals texting hotline has a new number. Starting this summer, families should text FOOD or COMIDA to 304-304 to find a site with meals for kids closest to them when school is out. This toolkit includes a range of ready-made promotional materials to help publicize summer meals in your community. Use this resource to maximize the impact of outreach efforts in schools, faith communities, community organizations, online, and more!
Communicating Summer Meals 2022 Operations Changes to Parents and FamiliesÂ
- Anticipating changes to your summer meals program? Use this resource to help communicate program changes early and often to families in your community. The toolkit provides sample language to include in letters to families, on flyers, and on social media. Drafted language for programs chancing operating and ceasing operation are available in both English and Spanish. Check it out!
Feeding a Crowd – Tips for Congregate Meal Service
- The Summer Meals Program requires that children eat their meals onsite under the congregate meal service requirement. Keeping children onsite to eat meals can be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be! This resource provides strategies to make congregate meal service easier for site staff and improve the experience for children and families. Use the strategies outlined to create a welcoming and fun environment and also tips for training and communicating program requirements to site staff and families.
SFSP & SSO Requirements – Comparison Chart Of Usual Vs. COVID-19 Waiver Operations
- This chart briefly describes the program requirements for the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and Seamless Summer Option (SSO). It compares “usual” operational provisions to those allowed under the COVID-19 pandemic waivers. Waivers will not be available for summer 2022 operations. Use this chart as a quick guide, but please do contact your state agency for more information and details on what is allowable for summer 2022 operations.
Summer 2022 Updates and ResourcesÂ
- Stay up to date with all of our new resources and webinars for this summer on this page.
We know that each summer, food insecurity rates spike as kids lose access to school breakfast, lunch, and afterschool meals. We’re so grateful to all meal sponsors and providers across Virginia for making sure all kids in our state have access to healthy meals all summer long.
Looking for guidance or support with your programs? Or have any questions about this summer that we haven’t answered? We’d love to hear from you! Just submit a request through our simple inquiry form and we’ll do our best to answer any questions you may have.