If you want to get a kid excited about something, a temporary tattoo will do the trick. So of course we’re taking that route in the hunger work our donors make possible.

Right now our summer meals program—how we’re expanding it to feed more meals to more kids—is fresh on our minds.

At this very moment, about 60 AmeriCorps VISTA members are setting up shop at 200+ parks, community centers and schools. They’re using door hangers, posters and temporary tattoos (of a strawberry—nothing better!) to get the word out. All summer long they’ll be feeding kids at those sites, which are in high-needs hunger areas around King County.

What for, you ask?

In King County, 100,000 kids take part in the free and reduced-price lunch program for low-income families. The program is paid for mostly by our federal tax dollars.

Take Safeco Field and fill it twice. That’s how many kids we’re talking about.

It’s great that these kids are getting nutritious meals during the school year. And when they’re out on vacation, they’re also eligible for the summer meals program.

But in the summer in Washington only 1 in 7 kids takes part.

You wouldn’t expect every kid to participate. But really, just 1 in 7?

Clearly there are kids in our community who aren’t getting all that they need for their growing brains and bodies.

Donors like you have made our summer meals program possible over the last few years. Russell Wilson helped us topple over the 1 million meal mark last year. And this year, with your help, we’re doing more sites, more meals, to feed even more hungry kids.