2nd Annual SFSP Kick Off Week!

USDA Food and Nutrition Service sent this bulletin at 06/11/2012 11:55 AM EDT

Today marks the 2nd annual National Summer Food Service Program Kick Off Week (June 11-15)!  During the school year, more than 21 million children receive free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch through the School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs.  But when school is out, many low-income kids relying on these school meals, go hungry.  To close that gap, USDA’s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) helps children get the nutritious meals they need during the summer months so they’re ready to learn when they return to school in the fall. 

 

This week, we’ll be sharing SFSP information through Twitter (@USDANutrition), blogs (http://blogs.usda.gov/), and a variety of National Summer Food Service Program kick-off events throughout the country. 

 

Help us raise awareness of this program and connect children and families to summer meal sites in their community!  Here are some ways you can help!

  • Help promote the National Hunger Hotline at 1-866-3-Hungry or 1-877-8-HAMBRE.  The Hotline staff can provide families, parents and children with information on where summer meal sites are in their community in addition to other food help resources.  It’s a free call, available in both English and Spanish.
  • Get your local radio station to run a SFSP Public Service Announcement (PSA).  Download the PSAs and provide them to your local radio station to play for free. They are available in English and Spanish: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/summer/Outreach.htm#PSA
  • Conduct outreach and distribute outreach materials to children and families, free customizable and downloadable materials are included in our USDA SFSP Outreach Toolkit, such as doorhangers, fliers with site information, brochures, letters to parents to send home from school, and much more!  http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/summer/Outreach.htm
  • Use your social media sites to spread the word! Retweet @USDANutrition tweets, repost our SFSP blog posts, share your summer stories and outreach tips!

For more information on the Summer Food Service Program, please visit: www.summerfood.usda.gov. 

Our nation's children are relying on all of us  to do our part so no child goes hungry this summer.  Thank you for your work and continued support!