Enriching your Summer Meals Programs

What can you do this summer to get kids interested in attending meal programs – and excited to keep coming back? Combining enrichment activities with summer meals can create meaningful, fun experiences that nourish minds and bodies. Learn about a new USDA toolkit to help boost programs, how low-cost books from First Book are being used in combination with summer meals and how a sponsor is using SNAP-Ed funding to create new summer meal sites with nutrition education programming. Access the new USDA Team Nutrition resources for Summer Meals programs using the audience filter “Afterschool and Summer.” You can find more from Team Nutrition on their website. To sign up with First Book, as a Summer Meals site, please visit their website. You can find additional resources on First Book’s Marketplace. Lastly, to learn more about SNAP-Ed opportunities and funding in your state, search for your state’s contact.

For additional information, please contact:

• Maya Maroto, Nutritionist, US Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, Nutrition Promotion and Technical Assistance Division, teamnutrition@fns.usda.gov
• Dorian Stonebarger, Program Manager, Three Square Food Bank, dstonebarger@threesquare.org
• Candace Radoski, Director of Partner Development, First Book, cradoski@firstbook.org
• Yvonne Sawyer, COO, Hope for Miami, yvonne@fcfcfl.org

Thanks to Arby’s Foundation and C&S Wholesale Grocers for sponsoring our summer work.