Hunger-Free Summer
This summer, approximately 18 million children will face a greater risk of hunger while they’re out of school. During the school year, almost 21 million children depend on free or reduced-price school meals to help keep them from going hungry. But only 2.3 million children are enrolled in similar summer meal programs.1
Whether the gap is 18 million or even half of that number, too many kids struggle with hunger during the summer months.
ConAgra Foods Foundation and Feeding America, the nation's network of food banks, have created the ConAgra Foods Hunger-Free Summer program, to help close the gap and ensure all children have access to nourishing meals year round. So while school may be out, lunch is always in session.
Half of the ConAgra Foods Foundation’s $10 million commitment* to Feeding America is dedicated to the Hunger-Free Summer program to supplement and expand the base of existing summer feeding programs for children.
This summer, 23 food banks in 20 states have been selected to receive Hunger-Free Summer Grants. The grants will be used to expand existing programs, establish new summer meal programs and locations, and to make sure more families know that this program is available to their children.
To learn more about the Hunger-Free Summer program as well as find out how you can help ensure no child goes hungry this summer, visit www.hungerfreesummertour.org.
Summer Food Service Program Background
Proper nutrition is vital to the growth and development of children, particularly children from low-income families. As schools let out for the summer, many children lose their one opportunity during the day to have a nutritious meal.
Feeding America discovered through its Hunger in America 2010 study that 87 percent of children in households that use Feeding America’s service and who receive subsidized school meals, often go hungry during the summer months because their families are unaware of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).2 The SFSP provides children from low-income families with free, nutritious meals during the summer months, and is the single-largest federal resource available for local sponsors who want to combine a feeding program with a summer activity program.
Through our partnership with Feeding America, we hope to close the gap and help ensure that all children have access to nourishing meals year round.
1 U.S. Department of Agriculture/FNS
2 Hunger in America 2010, Feeding America
*The grant also established the ConAgra Foods Child Hunger Corps and the new ConAgra Foods Fund to Fight Child Hunger.
Hunger by the Numbers
One in five children is struggling with hunger in America. In some U.S. counties though, that number is as high as one in two Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap illustrates the reality of hunger in communities nationwide.
No Kid Hungry
We believe no child in America should go hungry. Take the No Kid Hungry Pledge today and add your voice to the community of people passionate about ending childhood hunger in America.
Apply for a Grant
Want to apply for a grant from the ConAgra Foods Foundation? Learn about the application process and the criteria the ConAgra Foods Foundation uses to evaluate grant applications here.
