Free summer meals for kids saw a huge expansion this year, thanks to donors like you who fuel our work to build local families’ financial stability.

Summertime puts an added strain on low-income families. Their kids receive free- and reduced-price lunch during the school year, but when summer rolls around, that food budget goes into the red. But we all know kids need to eat well to grow well.

Here’s the quick nitty-gritty on the Summer Food Invasion’s success:

New look: Likely you’ve seen our childhood hunger work take on a few different looks, including the “Million Meals Campaign.” We rebranded the work this year to tell kids and families this: Meal sites are a fun place to be with friends.

New activities: This year we amped up the fun as well—because feeding kids is more than just a pretty face. Each Wednesday of the summer, at least one of the 250 sites had a field day that included radio station-led dance parties, face painting and more. Kids even got activity kits put together by Emerging Leaders volunteers.

More hands: This summer we hired more than 100 AmeriCorps VISTA members like Miraclejoy to deliver those 600,000 meals. They also did all the outreach with posters and door hangers and coordination with school districts to supply the right food for the right number of kids. They worked hard every day of the summer.

Summer Food Invasion—and all our Fuel Your Future work—leverages federal funding that already exist for hunger programs. So getting more hands on deck allows us to feed more kids with those dollars. The Seahawks, Employee Community Fund of Boeing Puget Sound, and Costco have our backs sponsor-wise as well.

Thanks for fueling our work to fuel kids!