Many kids rely on school meals for their nutrition. So, when school lets out for the summer, schools, churches, community organizations, state agencies, and others team up to provide thousands of meal sites across the state where kids can eat for free. Working to expand participation in the Summer Nutrition Programs has been a long-term project for the Carolina Hunger Initiative (CHI) team members, which includes developing yearly profiles showing participation rates by county.
In summer 2022, CHI partnered with the NC Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) School Nutrition Services team for the second year of the “SummerMeals4NCKids” project. CHI supported the summer nutrition programs in rural counties by:
- Hosting events at meal sites for kids with local stakeholders and summer meals mascot Ray .
- Creating a customizable outreach toolkit.
- Providing $1,000 “gift grants” in the form of equipment for serving meals.
- Building a new online home for the NC Summer Nutrition Programs, SummerMeals4NCKids.org.
The 2022 project also expanded on the previous year’s work by creating an internship program that embedded college students in four rural school districts to help operate their summer nutrition programs. Read more about the summer interns’ experiences.
Learn more about the NC Summer Nutrition Programs at SummerMeals4NCKids.org.