Taco Salad with the San Diego Unified Schools District -- A Model Summer Program
Posted by Katherine Van Steenburgh on Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Three million children in the state of California are eligible to receive free or reduced price school meals.
3,000,000!
That’s greater than the total population of Chicago (the 3rd largest city in the U.S.). Every summer millions of families face a financial challenge because school breakfasts and lunches are not available. Because of this burden, many families are breathing a sigh of relief right now as school begins.
However, there is a growing national movement of committed community organizations who are improving summer meals and providing free, healthy food to kids during the summer.
As many of you know, my co-worker Alice Pennington and I traveled across the country this summer visiting summer meals programs supported by Share Our Strength. The last day of our last trip was in San Diego, CA, where Alice and I ate lunch in a public park at summer meals site sponsored by the San Diego Unified Schools District.
The San Diego Unified Schools District is serving the San Diego community by providing summer lunches throughout the city. They became a sponsor in the Summer Food Service Program in 2004 and started with 16 park locations. That summer they served 11,000 meals. In 2009 (just 5 years later), they served summer lunch at 44 schools and 23 recreation centers and provided 250,000 meals and snacks to the children of San Diego. That’s a 2,172% increase in meals served in just 5 years!
This year, Share Our Strength provided funding that paid for a new meat/cheese slicer and a new sandwich assembler to make the production process much more efficient and productive. The school district had maxed out their space for volunteers to assemble meals and the only way to make more meals (for which there is high demand) is with this new equipment.
Alice and I had a memorable day at the park with the school district staff. We ate tasty taco salad, enjoyed the beautiful southern California weather, and spoke with several moms about the summer lunch program (known in San Diego as the Summer Fun Café).
One mother of three told Alice and I that she relied on the summer lunches at the parks. She had recently lost her job and the Summer Fun Café provided healthy free food for her children. The Summer Fun Café was definitely a needed help for this family, but going to a park for a tasty lunch was also a treasured family outing. Many moms and their kids enjoyed quality time together in the beautiful CA outdoors while also picking up their free lunch.
There are three reasons why the San Diego Summer Fun Cafe program is working:
SPECIAL EVENTS for the whole family. Every kid wants the summer to be filled with fun, new activities. Each park site has two special events (a bbq and a fiesta) during the summer. Kids eat for free and each parent pays $2.00 for lunch. Families come and spend a delightful afternoon together in the park. It’s more than a meal; it’s an enjoyable event for parents and kids.
PARTNERSHIPS. The San Diego Unified School District has partnered with local food banks and the San Diego Parks and Recreation Department to strengthen the program. During the summer, the food banks come to the summer sites to distribute large bags of fresh produce for free. Each family walks away with a free tasty lunch and a bundle of healthy fresh food.
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS. Though it may sound odd, marketing and communications are KEY to a successful summer program. Families and kids need to know WHERE to go to access free summer meals. San Diego United School District has made banners, fliers and signs to advertise the sites. They are spreading the word in San Diego that FREE lunch is available and making sure people know where to go. Word of mouth paired with effective (but simple) advertising tools has made their marketing campaign a success.
To learn more about the success of this program and to access resources, check out the San Diego Unified School District Summer Meals Tool Box (provided by the California Center for Research on Women and Families).
September 1, 2010 | 0 comment(s) | Tags: california, no kid hungry, summer meals
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