For many families across the Commonwealth, summer is here! While we know that summer can be considered a time where students get to rest and recover from the school year, we also know that food insecurity rates spike in the summer months. This is because thousands of children lose access to school breakfast, lunch, and afterschool meals that they often depend on.
Thankfully, school nutrition departments and non-profit organizations across the state are hard at work operating their summer meals sites to ensure that children have access to healthy breakfasts, lunches, and snacks at no cost in the summer months. These programs help keep children nourished and ready to achieve their full potential when back in school in the fall.
As part of our efforts to ensure kids have access to healthy meals during the summer months, No Kid Hungry Virginia operates a texting line and Free Meal Finder. We encourage families to text FOOD or COMIDA to 304-304 and type in their zip code to find nearby summer meals sites organized by school districts and community organizations.
All children and teens 18 and under can receive meals free of charge — no registration or proof of residency or citizenship needed — at familiar places throughout their community like parks, pools, schools, churches and libraries. In addition to our texting line and Free Meal Finder, meal site information is also available on school and community organization websites.
This summer, many children will also receive Summer P-EBT benefits from the Virginia Department of Social Services. Benefits will be distributed around July 22, 2023 to all children in Virginia that received free school meals during the academic year. To learn more about this benefit, visit the VDSS Summer P-EBT website.
Spread the word and make sure that all families in your community know where they can access free meals this summer.
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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.