Partner letter (135.81 KB)
Dear Friend,
We need your help to feed more hungry children this summer.
This week USDA kicked‐off the first‐ever National Summer Food Service Program Week: Food That’s In When School Is Out. Please join us in our efforts to promote USDA’s Summer Food Service Program and other initiatives across the country to help feed more children this summer.
During the school year, over 21 million children receive free and reduced‐price breakfast and lunch through the School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs. When school lets out, many of these children are at risk of hunger. Hunger is one of the most severe roadblocks to the learning process. Lack of nutrition during the summer months may set up a cycle of poor performance once school begins again and can also make children more prone to illness and other health issues. The Summer Food Service Program is designed to fill that nutrition gap and ensure children get the nutritious meals they need.
As an influential member of your community, you are in a unique position to spread the word about the benefits of the Summer Food Service Program and the role it plays in ending childhood hunger and improving the nutrition of low‐income children.
Please help ensure that families know about the Summer Food Service Program, and where kids can go to receive a nutritious meal. They can contact the National Hunger Hotline at 1‐866‐3‐HUNGRY or 1‐ 877‐8‐HAMBRE (in Spanish), or contact their local Summer Food Service Program State Agency to find a participating site in their community. Summer Food Service State Agency contacts can be found at www.summerfood.usda.gov. Encourage sites and sponsors in your community to register and promote their site using the National Hunger Hotline. As we know there is often a need for volunteers to help run the program at the local level, we encourage program sponsors and sites to post their volunteer opportunities at www.serve.gov/endhunger. This website allows volunteer opportunities to be posted, as well as allows volunteers to search for opportunities. Lastly, promote the SFSP Outreach Toolkit. The Outreach Toolkit will help sponsors and sites create outreach materials that will help the community learn about the program. The Outreach Toolkit and other resources can be found at www.summerfood.usda.gov.
I am certain with your help we can feed more children this summer. Together we can make sure low‐ income children have access to nutritious food all year long.