Summer Meals Across the Nation

If you've ever worked on community projects, you might know the same thing +Lauri Chandler and I have just discovered -- that many people had been thinking about projects very similar to our Let's Do Lunch idea, even before we came up with it.

Our idea is to help Indiana libraries provide meals for students while they are out of school for the summer. Fortunately, people have already started to do this with other programs and in other states.

That is completely ok, we say! The more the merrier. If lunching at the library could go viral across the nation, that would be totally fantastic. It's that kind of expansive public service mentality that keeps us all moving toward the same goal - alleviating hunger in this state and across the nation. There are many different organizations around the lunch table, and plenty of room for more. Maybe yours will be next!

Here's an article from this summer in the School Library Journal about how to help host a summer meal program. Indiana's Let's Do Lunch project helps Indiana libraries with some of these steps by providing them with the resources they need to get started.

Libraries Needed to Host Summer Meal Programs. Here’s How to Help.
School Library Journal, July 2015
By Kathy Ishizuka

A major supporter for summer meals at libraries is the USDA Summer Food Service Program. Many states partner with the USDA to provide students meals during the summer. Libraries can sign up to be an SFSP site. Here is the national Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) website. For more information about how your Indiana library can sign up to become an SFSP site, visit our website, Let's Do Lunch.

Here is some of the information we've collected on participants in programs at libraries similar to the one we promote in Indiana.

Click here for a U.S. map of Library Summer Meal Sites.

California
California Summer Meal Coalition California Institute for Local Government
Lunch at the Library California Library Association

Colorado
Summer Food Service Program Hunger Free Colorado

Indiana
Indiana's Summer Food Service Program, hosted by the Indiana Department of Education

Ohio
Summer Food Service Program OH Department of Education

Pennsylvania
Summer Food Service Program PA Department of Education
Food4Kids Summer Commission on Economic Opportunity

If you know of other similar projects in your area, please leave a comment at the bottom of this post.