Lunch
@ the Library: Program Information
The California Summer Meal Coalition (CSMC) and California Library Association (CLA) are working with libraries and meal providers across
California to offer summer lunch programs that are designed to provide
nourishment and summer enrichment for children and teens. All library meal
sites provide free summer lunches and engage families with library programs and
services. Some libraries are extending the impact of their lunch programs by
providing arts, literacy, and STEM programming for participating children and
teens.
Library
summer meal sites in California
- Alameda
County Library/REACH Ashland Youth Center
and Hayward Unified School District
- Chula Vista
Public Library and the Chula Vista Elementary School District
- Contra
Costa County Library and the Pittsburg Unified School District
and the West Contra Costa Unified School
District
- Fresno County Public Library
and the Fresno Economic Opportunities
Commission
- Kern County Library and the Kern County Superintendent of Schools
- Los Angeles Public Library and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
- Oakland Public Library, the City of Oakland and the Alameda County Food Bank
- Riverside Public Library and the Riverside Unified School District
- Sacramento Public Library and the Elk Grove Unified School District
- San Bruno Public Library and the YMCA of
Silicon Valley
- San Diego County Library and Feeding America San Diego
- San Diego Public Library and
the San Diego Unified School District
- San Francisco Public Library and the City and County of San Francisco's
Department of Children, Youth and their Families
- San
Luis Obispo County Library and the Food
Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County
- San Mateo
County Library and the YMCA of Silicon Valley
- South
San Francisco Public Library and the YMCA
of Silicon Valley
- Tulare County Library and FoodLink for Tulare County, Inc
The
need for free summer meals
Summer
vacation presents a different reality for many impoverished children in
California. In addition to limited access to summer learning and enrichment
programs, many low-income children struggle to have basic needs met, with
reduced access to healthy food and safe places to congregate. The intersections
between summer health and summer learning and enrichment are great, suggesting
that a holistic view of the summer landscape is crucial to understanding
existing challenges and opportunities to creating a summer experience in which
all children are healthy, active, and engaged.
A
2012 report from the National Summer Learning Association
highlights the links between food insecurity, childhood obesity, and the
achievement gap:4
•Food
insecurity increases during the summer break without access to the nutrition
provided by the National School Lunch Program.
•Children
may gain weight two to three times faster during the summer than during the
school year.
•Low-income
youth may fall further behind in academic skills—particularly reading—during
the summer break, experiencing greater “summer learning loss” than their
higher-income peers and widening the achievement gap.
•Nutrition
education interventions that exclusively target the school environment may be
less impactful because weight gain happens primarily outside of school.
•Adequate
nutrition promotes brain development and improves cognitive functioning,
whereas inadequate nutrition is associated with physical and mental health
issues, emotional and behavioral problems, learning deficiencies, lower grades,
and repeating a grade.
Children
who are well-nourished are likely to have cognitive advantages over children
with deficits in this area, and reducing health disparities among lower and
higher socioeconomic children can help close the achievement gap.5
READ MORE
!
Visit the California Department of Education’s searchable
online map here for more sites. Summer meal sites will offer free lunch and snacks to youth
under age 18 from June 2 through August 8.
