School's Out But Scratch-Cooked Meals Aren't

Kids should have access to healthy meals every day — even when schools are out for summer. Summer feeding is in full force and select districts are providing meals for kids up to 18 years old at no cost thanks to the United State Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) summer meal programs. The USDA has a mobile route maker so that families throughout the country can access healthy meals for their children.

Not only are school food professionals ensuring kids are fed, but they are continuing to scratch-cook and offering fresh menu items at locations such as local camps, parks, libraries, and museums. We connected with various districts about how they’ve tackled summer feeding in previous years and what they are doing right now to serve our nation’s kids while schools are out.

With a school district of 5600 students, Caroline County Public Schools (CCPS) anticipates serving a total of 60,000 summer meals this year! Given this high volume of meals, they are implementing a variety of service models. For children that live remotely and do not have access to transportation or meal sites within walking distance, CCPS accepts applications for door to door service. In this door to door model, they distribute three days of breakfast and lunch twice a week to these students. For kids that are at summer camp at their five elementary schools, CCPS offers breakfast and lunch to over 700 students for five weeks. Additionally, they have community sites for meal pick up including head start programs, libraries and apartment complexes.

CCPS aims to provide students with hot meals to cut down on the individually wrapped meals being served. As part of their Central Backpack Program, they also offer weekend food bags at all their meal sites to ensure students in need have enough food to get through the weekends. During summer food service, Caroline County staff purchase and process about 15,000 pounds of local produce to use for both summer meals and for the school year. Their biggest challenge is that farmers are growing when they are out of school. Purchasing this volume of produce is a way to capture the growing season and extend it into the school year!

In previous years, SDUSD hosted lively summer kick-off celebrations and barbeques for the community as a start to the summer meals programs. These kick-off events are a great way to bring awareness to the summer feeding program and districts can partner with food banks for produce distribution as well as community organizations to link families to wellness resources. For example, SDUSD has partnered with organizations like 211 San Diego, a nonprofit organization that provides information and connections to community, health and disaster resources in an effort to spread the word regarding summer feeding locations. Local radio and news stations have also covered these events to highlight the program and create recognition.

These kick-off events are a great opportunity to share things happening in the department and a fun time for the whole family. Due to repairs and staffing shortages, SDUSD is operating on a very simple menu this summer and wasn’t able to hold a kick-off event. However, they still have a variety of serving locations throughout the community including schools, parks, military locations, community centers and more!

Fueling Students All Summer Long

No matter what the summer entails, healthy school food should be accessible to all kids. School districts across the country are working hard to provide scratch-cooked meal options throughout their communities from school sites to mobile buses to local parks. These feeding efforts help ensure students are getting fed outside of school so that kids have the nourishment they need to thrive.

Check out this resource on The Lunch Box for scratch-cooked to-go recipe ideas that are perfect for summer feeding including black bean burgers, pork green chili burritos, caprese sliders and more!