Florida Department Of Agriculture Providing Free Meals To Children During Summer

The Florida Department of Agriculture’s Summer BreakSpot program is stepping up to feed millions of children while school is out.

“It is a program that is designed to insure that children who are typically accustomed to receiving meals at school during the year, still have an opportunity to receive a nutritious meal when they’re out on their summer vacation,” said Lakeisha Hood.

Hood oversees the program inside the Division of Food Nutrition and Wellness within the Florida Department of Agriculture.

According to Feeding Florida, 1.1 million children across the Sunshine State are food insecure, meaning they live in a household that’s unable to provide enough food for every person to live an active, healthy life.

Food insecurity can damage a child’s ability to learn, stunt development, increase the risk of chronic illnesses and cause behavioral problems.

“Ensuring access to fresh, nutritious food for children is one of our Department’s most important responsibilities,” said Florida Department of Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried. “Too many of Florida’s children and families struggle with adequate nutrition, food deserts, and food insecurity. The Summer BreakSpot Program helps serve millions of meals to bridge the gap, and I’m grateful to our partner schools, organizations, and the USDA for their partnership in feeding Florida’s future.”

Over 4,000 locations are participating in the program this year, and they’ll be busy. Last year, from June through August, over 14 million meals were served at schools, churches and community centers.

“We actually operate in every county in the state. We have over 130 sponsors of the program,” Hood said. “It allows for them to go to any number of sites – sometimes school-based, sometimes community-based – to get a free meal. Sometimes they can get up to 2-3 meals – it just depends on the number of meals that site decides to offer. But it could be anything from a breakfast or a snack, to a lunch or a supper meal.”

The meals consist of:

Breakfast:

• 1 serving of milk

• 1 serving of fruits or vegetables

• 1 serving of grains

Lunch/Dinner:

• 1 serving of milk

• 2 servings of fruits and/or vegetables

• 1 serving of grains

• 1 serving of protein

Snack:

• 1 serving of milk

• 1 serving of fruits or vegetables

• 1 serving of grains

• 1 serving of protein

“We want to make sure that it’s the best meal that they could possibly receive, and it has all the nutrition requirements,” said Hood.

The Florida Department of Agriculture established three ways for parents to find a location:

• Dial 2-1-1

• Text “FoodFL” to 877-877

• Visit SummerBreakSpot.org

“Any children who are 18 years or younger can show up to any Summer BreakSpot site throughout the state and receive a meal at no charge,” says Hood. “We promote ‘Fresh from Florida’ products that our summer feeding sites can provide, and expose the children to more of the things that Florida has to offer as far as produce.”

While there are no costs for the meals, there might be fees for any activities provided by the participating locations.