Tens of thousands of New Jersey students rely on school meals during the academic year. When school’s out, family budgets are stretched tight and children lack access to the meals they rely on during the school year. Despite this need and free meals being served in communities across the state, just 21 percent of our kids received these meals in 2016. Please help spread the word!
There is a solution. Summer meals programs, funded through the USDA, are free and require no identification or income verification from parents.
The New Jersey Department of Agriculture has uploaded meal sites and locations to the USDA’s sitefinder. Individuals can also text the word “food” to 877 877 and get a list of sites in their area.
The New Jersey Food for Thought Campaign has also posted a list of summer meal sponsors, along with a local outreach toolkit, flyers, social media messages, sample letters to the editor and other outreach tools. Please use these resources to spread the word about summer meals in your community.