There are many activities synonymous with summer, including vacations from school, travel, camps, cookouts, and, in our area, free summer meals for school-age children.

United Way of King County’s Free Summer Meals campaign is back.

This year, United Way of King County is working with partners across the state to expand access to summer meals, share information about federal grocery benefits, and connect families to free, nutritious food.

When the school year ends, many school-age children lose access to meals. Families spend an estimated $300 more on groceries per child during the summer, which can be especially hard for those already struggling to make ends meet.

In King County, United Way is supporting partners by launching new sites, strengthening outreach, and testing creative strategies to reach more kids and families. Statewide, we’re focused on expanding access in rural communities by working with partners to launch mobile meal routes, home-delivery programs, and other flexible models where traditional meal sites aren’t always feasible.

“We really work to make sure that kids in our community have access to three meals a day, every day. One of the ways we do that is through our Free Summer Meals campaign,” said Sara Seelmeyer, United Way Director, Ending Hunger, in a May 4 episode of the  Hourglass United Way podcast.

“We know that more than 100,000 kids in King County access free meals every day during the school year,” Seelmeyer added. “While summer is a really exciting time for kids, for low-income kids, it also means that access to meals ends. So, it can also be the hungriest time of the year for too many families in our community. United Way works with partners across our county to operate nearly 200 Free Summer Meals sites that provide lunch, a snack, often breakfast or supper to kids every single day alongside enrichment activities, art projects, sports—all of those things that make summer fun for kids.”

We’re also investing in outreach microgrants to help community-based organizations connect families with summer meals and SUN Bucks in their own communities.

SUN Bucks (also known as Summer Nutrition Bucks or Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer) is a federal program that supports families who lose access to free school meals over the summer months. With SUN Bucks, families receive an allotment of $120 per eligible child to help cover grocery costs when school is out. Like the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SUN Bucks can be used to buy food at grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and other locations.

SUN Bucks works in tandem with the Free Summer Meals program to support families when school meals are unavailable. The results have made the two programs a godsend for children and families each summer. Last year, partners across Washington state served more than 1.2 million meals at 717 sites—more than 22,000 kids per day. Also, more than 545,000 Washington state youth were connected to SUN Bucks last year.

In addition to Free Summer Meals, United Way is launching a statewide partnership with Safeway and former United Way board member and Seahawks legend Doug Baldwin Jr. to expand access to afterschool meals.

The federal afterschool meals program is one of the most viable ways to ensure that kids and teens have access to three meals per day, but it is underutilized in Washington State: just 2% of low-income youth currently participate in an afterschool meals program.

Through this new partnership, United Way will work with 35 middle and high schools across the state to launch after-school meals programs.

Locally, this includes schools in Seattle, Auburn, Federal Way, Kent, Maple Valley, and Tukwila. Our goal is to ensure that students can access food where they already spend time—whether they’re practicing a sport, participating in a club, or hanging out with their friends.

“At a time when food assistance is tightening, compassion must be operational, not theoretical,” said Baldwin on his LinkedIn page. “We are grateful for the federal and state nutrition teams, school service teams, and partners like Sara Seelmeyer of United Way of King County and Sara Osborne of Safeway for fighting the good fight in service of our communities.”

United Way’s goal is simple: to ensure every child has access to food during the summer months. We ask that you spread the word and share Free Summer Meals with your network. For more information and to access nearby Free Summer Meals sites, click here.