Various groups are helping to provide free meals to Chicago-area students in need over the summer months, NBC-5 Chicago reports.
(Don and Janet Beasley via Flickr Creative Commons)For example, the Phillips Park Zoo in Aurora is one site where children under 18 can go for an easy, fun, nutritious breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack every weekday from the Northern Illinois Food Bank’s Summer Food Service Program. Approximately 7,600 children reportedly participated daily in 2023, with more than 285,000 meals served at 112 sites.
“If we weren’t here doing these meals, they wouldn’t have summer meals,” the station quoted Chief Impact Officer Jen Lamplough as saying. “Kids depend on meals from school, and when school is out, hunger for kids goes up, so if we weren’t here giving out these meals, they probably would not have lunch today.”
The program, funded by the US Department of Agriculture and administered by the Illinois State Board of Education, is a testament to the commitment and expertise of the organizations involved.
Students in the city of Chicago can access the LunchStop program from Chicago Public Schools every weekday through August 9. LunchStop is available at outdoor locations throughout the District (Summer Meal Finder).
The USDA offers many options for students to access meals over the summer. Schools can apply to operate sponsored meal sites or offer families the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) Program, which provides $120 per eligible child in the summer to buy groceries.
In Chicago and similar meal-service locations funded by the USDA, children must consume the meals on-site based on the “congregate eligibility rule.” Otherwise, the sponsor, who must monitor the site to enforce the rule, risks losing reimbursement. This rule can reduce participation, Education Week reported.
Starting this summer, some rural areas are exempt from the rule’s on-site requirement. Baltimore County, Maryland, for example, recently opened new rural pickup sites for free summer meals, WYPR (NPR Baltimore) reported.
“We know that summer is not a time when hunger takes a vacation,” the station quoted Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski as saying. “So neither can we, in terms of providing meals for our young people. And so anyone under the age of 18, at our libraries and other sites throughout the county, can go in, get their meal, and make sure that they’re nourished so that they can continue learning and thriving this summer.”
In all, 48 states are now using the USDA’s SUN Meals-To-Go program, according to the department’s website.
