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 close to 50 sites that feed hungry children. During Summer 2009 the Food Bank will deliver 245,000 meals to 3,141 children statewide. Children can expect to see a menu of 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 wishing to receive meals from the Food Bank of Delaware may call Stacy Stevens, Children’s Nutrition Program Coordinator at (302) 292-1305 ext 241 or sstevens@fbd.org.