Cassie Lee is a Warranty Business Analyst at PACCAR Inc., who was inspired to get more involved in the community. For her, Emerging Leaders was the answer. She now serves on the Emerging Leaders Committee.

School’s out and summer is in full swing. Awesome, right? While this may be a widely shared sentiment, it’s not often we think about those families whose children participate in free or reduced lunch plans during the school year. A summer break for these families, therefore, also translates into a break in these programs and an added strain for 2-3 months. United Way’s Summer Food Invasion helps ease the burden. The program brings nutritious meals to the kids at more than 250 sites across King County. In addition to food, sites offer fun activities to make the experience feel more like a summer camp than meal site.

On Saturday, July 9th, I was grateful to work alongside 21 other energetic volunteers, assembling activity kits for kids who come to summer meals sites for food and fun! Every week, the program has a theme to help turn into a summer camp full of discovery. Our volunteer group split into two teams and worked on the Food Invasion’s pre-planned astronaut and space exploration weeks. We filled each kit with at least 15 different items, varying from craft paper to foil to wacky kaleidoscopes.

To date, Summer Food Invasion has served 640,000 summer meals and their numbers continue to grow. The program makes it easy for kids to access nutritious food outside of the school year, ensuring that summer is an exciting time for all children.