Free Summer Meals Offered in San Angelo by The Texas Hunger Initiative

The Texas Hunger Initiative – San Angelo Regional Office and San Angelo ISD (SAISD) are collaborating with a diverse group of partners to host an event promoting the Free Summer Meals program for kids and teens in the area. The “Keep Summer Going” event will help connect more area kids and teens to health and nutrition resources by raising awareness about the free SAISD Summer Meals program that will be serving meals through July 24.In addition to SAISD meals, the Texas Hunger Initiative Child Hunger Outreach Specialist, through generous funding from the Walmart Foundation, is coordinating meals for its privately funded program, Kids Eat FREE, and will serve free lunch July 6- August 21.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers free summer meals to all kids and teens ages 18 and younger at various school sites during July. Unfortunately, however, only a small percentage of children who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch during the school year participated in the free Summer Meals program last year. The “Keep Summer Going” Summer Meals event seeks to offer heightened promotion of and information about the Summer Meals program in order to increase participation, as well as to highlight the strong local leadership of community partners.

Summertime should be a stress-free time for parents and kids, full of food, friends and fun. Free Summer Meals can help. Families can visit www.summerfood.org, call 211, or text FOODTX to 877-877 to find the nearest meal site.

Who:  San Angelo ISD and Texas Hunger Initiative and Partners        

What: Keep Summer Going- Summer Meals June 23- July 24 (closed week of June 29- July 3)

Where: Austin Elementary School Cafeteria, 700 N. Van Buren

When: 6/23/2015 11:45 AM – 12:45 PM

Program details:

• Meals are FREE to children and teens ages 18 and younger who come to a Summer Meals site
• Food served follows USDA nutrition guidelines and is paid for by the USDA
• Parents don’t need to apply to the program to get a free summer meal for their kids. They just simply bring their child to a Summer Meals site in their community.

About Texas Hunger Initiative

Baylor University’s Texas Hunger Initiative (THI) is a capacity-building, collaborative project, which develops and implements strategies to end hunger through research, policy, education, community engagement and community development. THI works to make the state food secure by ensuring that every individual has access to three healthy meals a day, seven days a week. THI convenes federal, state and local government stakeholders with nonprofits, faith communities and business leaders to create an efficient system of accountability that increases food security in Texas and beyond. Headquartered at Baylor University, THI has 12 regional offices located in Amarillo, Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Lubbock, McAllen, San Angelo, San Antonio, Tyler and Waco. At THI, Summer Meals program evaluation and outreach is funded by the Walmart Foundation.