The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), funded by the United State’s Department of Agriculture and administered by the Delaware Department of Education, provides breakfast, lunch and snacks to low-income children in the summer when access to free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch feeding programs are not available.
In Delaware, more than 127,000 children rely on these school-nutrition programs as their main source of healthy meals – when school ends for the summer so does breakfast and lunch for many. Only 27 percent of eligible children have taken advantage of the summer feeding program.
To help bridge the nutrition gap during the summer months, the Food Bank provides nutritious meals for more than 50 sites that feed hungry children. During Summer 2011 the Food Bank delivered more than 405,000 meals to children. Some of the meals included healthy, kid-friendly foods including rice crispies cereal, peanut butter and jelly, turkey and cheese, yogurt, oranges and more.
Hundreds of volunteers, along with the Food Bank’s staff, work tirelessly to make sure that Delaware’s children have nutritious meals during the summer. The Food Bank stresses the important role food plays in the physical and psychological development of a child. Mild to moderate malnutrition can be considered a developmental risk factor for all children and can greatly affect a child’s capacity to learn.
To qualify for free meals, sites must operate in low-income areas where at least half of the children are eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program.
SFSP sites in New Castle County wishing to receive meals from the Food Bank of Delaware may call Stacy Stevens, Children’s Nutrition Program Coordinator at (302) 444-8128 or sstevens@fbd.org. Sites in Sussex Counties may contact Holly Johnson, Child and Adult Programs Coordinator at (302) 424-3301 ext 102 or hjohnson@fbd.org.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).