Ideas to Help Enhance Your K-12 Summer Feeding Program

Published: April 15, 2025

As demanding as it is to keep students fed during the school year, summer feeding presents a whole new set of challenges. We’ve put together some resources and product ideas to help you plan a successful feeding program for your students this summer.

Featuring Advance Pierre® Fully Cooked Beef Steak Burger

As a K-12 foodservice director, you know the important role nutrition plays in helping students perform at their very best.

But just as education continues beyond the traditional school year, so does the need for nutritious meals for students. When schools close for summer, many students lose access to the breakfast and lunch programs they’ve relied on.

Luckily, to bridge this gap, many organizations across the country offer summer nutrition programs, providing free meals to children in need.

By promoting these free programs to students and parents in your district—along with your school’s own summer feeding efforts—you can bring more awareness and opportunity for feeding food-insecure students throughout the summer.

In July 2023, about 2.8 million children ate summer lunch on an average day, reaching only 1 in 7 children who rely on free or reduced-price school lunch during the school year.¹

Free Programs to Help Your District Reduce Food Insecurity

You may know about the statewide Summer Food Service Programs funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that offer free summer meals to kids and teens at eligible locations. Here you’ll find resources to help your district execute a successful summer feeding program.

Simple Tips For Successful Summer Feeding

No matter where you’re at with your summer feeding program, one of the most valuable things you can do to maximize participation is to get the word out. Here are some tips:

• Clearly communicate “when and where” your programs are taking place in your communications

• Display posters and distribute flyers at your school—as well as local businesses and community gathering places. Be sure to send flyers home with students

• Use email blasts, Facebook and Instragram posts to reinforce your efforts

• Create excitement by promoting the products or recipes you’ll be featuring

Breakfast Bliss

Legendary Lunch

Engage Students with Fun Activities

Wherever you’re serving your summer meals, you can easily elevate your program by including activities for students to enjoy at your meal site. Here are a few thought-starters:

Sidewalk ABCs

Using sidewalk chalk, write the alphabet on the pavement or sidewalk. Have students take turns completing words that start with each letter of the alphabet until all letters are used.

Name That Food

Choose one of the menu items you’re serving (say, chicken sandwich) and ask students to name a new food that begins with the last letter of the food before it. (Ex. Sandwich, Hamburger, Raisin)

Rate the Meal

Ask students to rate what they ate on a scale of 1 to 10 and share what they liked best about the meal. (For students who rated the meal below a 5, ask what they would have liked instead.) This not only gets students engaged with the food, it gives you valuable information about the items they like best.

We Have the Products and Resources to Support Your Summer Feeding Program

Tyson K-12 supports your mission of keeping students well-fed—year round—so they can perform at their very best. We offer a wide range of protein-packed products for easy application—along with fun resources to get kids excited to show up!

They include:

Individually Wrapped Sandwiches
Burger Patties
Chicken Filets
Hot Dogs
and more!

We also have plenty of resources available to help you promote your summer feeding program—including eye-catching signage to showcase your menu offerings, and vibrant product packaging to enhance your grab-and-go servings.

To see our full portfolio of products for K-12, click here.

We’re here to help! For more information on how the above products can benefit your operation, reach out to your Tyson K-12 Representative.

Additional Resources for Out-Of-School Feeding

SUN Meals are just one of the resources available to your district to help you feed students outside of school during summer.

The Non-Congregate Summer Meal Service option (SUN Meals To-Go) allows certain rural areas to distribute nutritious meals to kids outside of the typically required group (congregate) settings—while the SUN Bucks (Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer) Program is a new grocery benefit that offers families $120 per eligible child in the summer.

Use these resources to find the program and tools that best fit your setup and capabilities.

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Sources:

^{1 Food Research & Action Center, August 2024}

^{2 USDA's annual Household Food Insecurity in the United States report, 2023}

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