Summer Meals at the Library

Libraries are natural spaces for serving meals to children whose access to lunch disappears when school ends and summer begins. Libraries are community spaces in the heart of the neighborhood. They welcome all and they provide access, free of charge, to resources that support the community’s lifelong needs.

Furthermore, public library summer reading programs encourage and enable children and teens to set reading goals, engage them in activities that extend the reading experience, and connect youth with librarians who can help guide their reading choices and become positive role models and adult influences in their lives.

Read a New York Times article that gives an excellent overview of library summer meals programs.

No Kid Hungry

Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign connects more kids to the nutrition they need in the summer months by increasing the number and awareness of summer meals programs across the country.

High-quality resources designed to make it easy for you to promote summer meals can be accessed via the No Kid Hungry Summer Meals Outreach Toolkit.

View upcoming No Kid Hungry events and webinars. 

Lunch at the Library

Through the Lunch at the Library program, the California Library Association and California Summer Meal Coalition provide libraries with the resources and support they need to establish themselves as quality summer meal program sites for their communities.

The project is funded by a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and it is supported in whole or in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.