State Superintendent Tony Thurmond has announced that applications will be available for the Summer Food Service Program and the Seamless Summer Option on Feb. 18.

The SFSP and SSO are federally funded, state-administered programs that serve free meals to children eighteen and younger when school is out of session. Summer meals provide children with access to essential nutrition during school closures and summer break. In the summer of 2024, SFSP and SSO operators served more than 15 million meals to children throughout the state.

“The partnerships that the California Department of Education has with local community organizations throughout the state are vital to the success of the Summer Meal Programs,” said Superintendent Thurmond. “Our ability to reach California’s most vulnerable children would not be possible if organizations did not apply to participate as sponsors or meal service sites.”

Summer meal sites can be established in communities in which at least 50 percent of the children qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. All meals meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition requirements, and no paperwork or personal information is required for children to participate. Organizations eligible to participate in Summer Meal Programs include schools, camps, nonprofits, tribal governments, and government agencies. Applications are due by May 15, 2025.

Additionally, sites in rural areas where no congregate meal service is available may apply to operate a non-congregate service. The permanent non-congregate meal service option helps alleviate rural children’s common barriers to meal access such as transportation during the summer months. Organizations operating in rural communities can deliver meals directly to homes or along bus routes, provide multiple days’ worth of meals at a time, and allow parents or guardians to pick up meals on their children’s behalf.

The expansion of rural non-congregate meal service and the launch of the permanent SUN Bucks (Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer) program in 2024 are two exciting new ways in which the Summer Meal Programs bolster California’s commitment to Universal Meals.

For more information about Summer Meal Programs, visit the California Department of Education  Summer Meal Programs web page. If your agency is interested in becoming a sponsor or hosting a meal site, contact the Summer Nutrition Programs and Grants Unit at SFSP@cde.ca.gov. If your organization is not able to provide meal services, please consider promoting Summer Meal Sites in your community.

You can locate meal sites on the CDE Summer Meal Service Sites web page. In addition, you can locate summer meals from your mobile phone by downloading the CDE CA Meals for Kids mobile application.