Harvard District 50 receives No Kid Hungry grant for summer meal program

Harvard Community Unit School District 50 is among the organizations who will receive over $49,000 from No Kid Hungry to help ensure Illinois kids get the food they need to grow and thrive this summer.

For kids who receive school meals, the summer months can be the hungriest time of year.

No Kid Hungry Illinois provided four organizations across the state with a total of $49,750 to help reach more kids in rural communities with summer meals.

Traditional summer meal programs have only reached a fraction of kids in rural communities, but non-congregate summer meal flexibilities have been a game changer in recent years.

No Kid Hungry’s grant funding supports summer meal programs that make meals more accessible for rural families by delivering meals to children who need them or allowing parents to pick meals up at a central location to be taken home for their kids, oftentimes for multiple days at a time.

For many children, during the school year, free and reduced price school meals ensure reliable access to nutrition. When schools close for the summer, however, these meals disappear and families struggle from the strain on already-tight budgets. This can be particularly true for rural families.

A recent No Kid Hungry nationwide survey found that nearly three quarters (74%) of rural families living on low incomes with children ran out of food in the past year.

For help finding a Summer Meal site, visit NoKidHungry.org/Help or NoKidHungry.org/Ayuda. The program is available to all children 18 and under.