GA Dept. of Early Care & Learning to Provide Free Meals to Students over Summer
The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning is providing free meals for children 18 and under throughout the summer.
The service is provided through the Summer Food Service Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Director of Nutrition Services for the Department of Early Learning and Care Falita Flowers said that the program provides free meals and snacks through sponsoring organizations.
“Most of our sponsor organizations are private, non-profit organizations,” said Flowers. “They’re usually already providing some type of community service or programming in their communities and they’re just adding the meal service to their programming during the summer months.”
Meals are provided at a number of different locations, including local parks, recreation centers, churches and others. They also have mobile feeding sites.
The meals are available to all children under 18 years of age. Flowers explained how sites are established.
“Sites are established generally in areas where 50 percent or more of the school-age children qualify for free or reduced pricing,” said Flowers. “Eligibility is determined on the site location, not necessarily the household income of the children receiving the meals.”
Flowers said that the program is available as soon as the first day after school is over and lasts the entire summer. She says that it serves many purposes for communities across the state:
“It’s an option for many reasons,” said Flowers. “To give parents a break on occurring those additional food costs when the kids are not at school, and two, to help sustain that access to healthy meals and snacks during the summer months so that brain growth can continue.”
Anyone interested in finding area sites where meals will be served can visit the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning’s website at decal.ga.gov/nutritionalsearch or by texting FOODGA to 877-877. Some local sites include the Boys and Girls Club and Camp Toccoa.