A key part of connecting more children to summer meals is raising awareness about programs.
This section includes outreach materials, advice on working with key partners to spread the word about summer meals programs in your community, and guidance on leveraging media to amplify your message.
These high-quality resources were designed to help make it easy for you to promote summer meals.
Thanks to the generous support of the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, No Kid Hungry has created a summer meals outreach toolkit to help you get the word out to families. A range of ready-made promotional materials are available to help publicize summer meals in your community. Use these resources to maximize the impact of outreach efforts in schools, faith communities, community organizations and online.
Getting a newspaper to promote free summer meals is an effective way to bring attention to the program, as are public service announcements (PSAs) on radio or television stations. Hosting a media event at a summer meals site is also an opportunity to engage elected officials and bolster support for programs that nourish kids when school is out. Writing an op-ed or letter to the editor can also help raise awareness about summer meals. To help you make the most of these opportunities, the Center for Best Practices has compiled resources to support your work in this area.
Engage the Media and Elected Officials
Summer Awareness Building Toolkit: In this toolkit, you’ll find a menu of options for leveraging outreach opportunities around summer meals and No Kid Hungry's summer texting hotline. For ease of use, the toolkit is broken down by audience (reporters/press, social media, elected officials, other community leaders) and includes links to templates, best practices, and other resources for engaging each audience. Within the toolkit, users can access an elected official action sheet, sample summer meals proclamation, and a "how-to" guide for engaging elected officials around summer meals.
Summer Site Visit Toolkit: As elected officials return home during the summer months, a visit to a local summer meals site will reinforce the importance of these programs and increase buy-in from these leaders to ensure that all children have access to meals in the summertime. Arranging a site visit provides an opportunity for these officials to directly engage with constituents and better understand how your work is building resilience within the community. The No Kid Hungry campaign has prepared a toolkit to help your organization facilitate these events. This toolkitprovides planning timelines, template communication and publicity materials, and tips for executing a successful event highlighting the importance of summer meals to elected officials and other local influencers.
According to a 2013 survey of low-income families, schools are the most trusted source of information regarding child nutrition programs, so they are crucial pathways to reaching kids and families. If a school offers summer meals, they and their partners should actively promote it to students. If a school does not provide summer meals, then schools should instead provide information about nearby programs that are open to students.
Schools can spread the word about summer meals through:
Customize these FAQs about summer meals to announce your summer meals program. Use this information on your website and in other outreach materials to provide more information about programs.
Faith-based organizations and places of worship are trusted sources of information and support, so they can be helpful partners for promoting programs within the community. Faith-based organizations have a number of avenues available to get the word out about the availability of summer meals.
Customize these FAQs about summer meals to announce your summer meals program. Use this information on your website and in other outreach materials to provide more information about programs.
Grassroots outreach spearheaded by community-based organizations and volunteers is an effective strategy to raise awareness and increase access to summer meals programs. Community groups that offer enrichment programming are also promising candidates to both serve as sites and help get the word out about summer meals.
Community-based organizations have a range of options to initiate or expand grassroots outreach efforts:
Work with the state agency to map existing summer meals sites in the community in order to target areas for outreach or promotion.
Conduct a neighborhood canvassing event with volunteer organizations or other local partners.
Put up outreach materials that promote summer meals in locations across the community: parks and recreation centers, libraries, community health centers, public transportation centers, public housing complexes, childcare facilities, houses of worship, grocery/convenience stores, barber shops, hair salons, food pantries, and other government offices delivering social services.
For community groups interested in becoming a summer meals sponsor or site, it is important to learn the basics of the program and engage with the administering state agency to learn how to get started.
The internet and social media networks are a great way to reach a large audience at relatively low cost. Online outreach, including paid advertising, provides an opportunity to hone in on your target audience to ensure your investments of time and money are well-spent.
The information that you decide to provide will depend on your services and your audience, but options include:
Stories or statistics demonstrating the need for summer meals, like No Kid Hungry’s 2013 survey results
Customize these FAQs about summer meals to announce your summer meals program. Use this information on your website and in other outreach materials to provide more information about programs.
Kids across America are facing a summer of hunger. We have the power to change that. These videos can be shared throughout your network to raise awareness and galvanize support for local summer meals programming.
