Schools, camps, churches and other sites across Connecticut began serving free meals to children under 18 on Monday.
The federal Free Summer Food Service Program provides two meals and snacks a day without any need to register or present identification.
Caroline Cooke at the state Department of Education runs the program. She said during the school year, about 170,000 kids receive free and reduced lunch. In the summer, those kids may go hungry.
“We still want to make sure we reach as many kids as we can because there’s still a gap between the number of kids that access meals during the school year and the number of kids to access meals during the summer.”
Federal funding for Connecticut’s Summer Meals on the Move home delivery service did not get renewed this year, but there are many locations to pick up meals.
Find those free summer meal sites online or call 1-866-974-SNAP.