Collaborative efforts are the heart and soul of USDA’s Summer Food Service Program, and these successful partnerships were thriving across the nation this summer. Many organizations, non-profits, schools, churches, and others have teamed with USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service to expand this vital program. And now that summer has come to an end, the success stories we’re hearing are music to our ears.
Among them, we’re highlighting two unique organizations with amazing stories to share.
Feed the Children is an organization known for its anti-hunger efforts around the globe, but they recently expanded their domestic programs to include a Summer Food and Education Program in Oklahoma. Here they focused on reaching children in urban, peri-urban, and American Indian areas. This summer, Feed the Children served over 8,000 meals through a traditional summer meals model and an additional 186,000 meals to families in the same areas using private donations. They created a remarkable video highlighting their summer meals work, and you can check out the video here!
Feed the Children is not the only organization with a success story this summer. The Food for Good initiative, now in its sixth year, delivered an estimated 1.2 million meals to low-income children over summer in eight markets: Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, Waco, Little Rock, Detroit, Denver, and Oklahoma City. The group used their innovative technology to overcome obstacles rural areas face serving summer meals. Their newly created cooling technology protects the food from extreme summer temperatures and their logistical expertise in food-sourcing and distribution helps deliver high quality, low cost meals within walking distance for thousands of children in need. To learn more about Food for Good and how they operate the Summer Food Service Program, watch this video.
Both Food for Good and Feed the Children are not only great models, they’re an inspiration to so many. USDA, the nation’s communities and those they feed can’t thank them enough for their important work. For more stories and examples, please visit the Summer Food Service Program Best Practices page.
