Co-Creating Non-Congregate Summer Meals: Engaging Your Community to Design Your Program

This case study details how No Kid Hungry’s innovation team conducted a year-long human-centered design process to better understand how to effectively run summer non-congregate food programs that would meet the needs and desires of parents and caregivers, kids, and program operators. 

In Summer 2024, No Kid Hungry partnered with:

• Second Harvest of the Big Bend in Florida,  

• Studio Magic Hour, and equity design firm, and

• Community members in Gulf County, FL and Taylor County, FL.

Innovation pilots were conducted to determine how 1) community-identified meal sites, 2) activities for kids, and 3) caregiver appreciation help to improve summer non-congregate programs. Pilot summaries, along with the major outcomes, are below:

Community-Identified Meal Sites

Families communicated that meal pick-up sites that were quick, easy and convenient were the main drivers for usage. Additionally, families shared exactly where sites would be most helpful to them in thier communities, resulting in Second Harvest of the Big Bend adding more mobile meal sites in Gulf County, FL and Taylor County, FL, increasing meal participation from 8,634 meals served in summer 2023 to 22,421 meals served in summer 2024 - a 160% increase!

For guidance in how to obtain participant-centered feedback about mobile meals and grab-and-go sites, check out Route To Reach.

Activities for Kids

A common concern from families utilizing summer meals was that there weren't enough activities for kids to do during the summer months, and that they would like to see the summer meals program offer activity opportunities. Program participants imagined that providing activities for kids could decrease stigma around food insecurity and simultaneously create a joyful experience because families would be coming to meal pick-up sites for fun experiences rather than to simply acquire food that might be difficult for them to afford. Participant feedback resulted in an activity calendar with weekly activities planned all summer long, including “water week”, “creative mind week”, and “unplugged week”. 

For examples of fun, education, and wellness focused activities, plus a sample weekly calendar and customizable template, check out Kids’ Treasure Tracker.

Caregiver Appreciation 

Feedback from program participants also focused on showing appreciation to parents and caregivers, with the goal of shining a light on all that caregivers do and uplifting their spirits in the process. This led to Second Harvest of the Big Bend giving caregivers gift cards and written words of affirmation during meal pick-ups. 

For more ideas on how to make caregivers feel welcomed and appreciated, check out Caregiver Appreciation Calendar.

For more information on conducting a participant-centered design process, check out these resources:

• Snack-Sized Feedback – 10 creative and easy ways to obtain participant feedback during the summer 

• Voices Before Summer: Pre-Summer Caregiver Survey – A survey template meal providers can use to obtain participant feedback to help them design their program before it launches 

• Reflections After Summer: Post-Summer Caregiver Survey – A survey template meal providers can use to obtain participant feedback at the end of the summer meal program 

• Designing Participant-Centered NonCongregate Summer Meal Programs – A webinar focused on designing summer noncongregate meal programs that center the needs and desires of program participants.