
Kids Weekend Meals
Promoting Child Nutrition
The Food Bank works with school principals, administrators, staff and parent liaisons to identify children at risk of hunger or food insecurity.
FACT: More than 1 in 5 children do not always have enough to eat.
Many children depend on meals provided at school through the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch program; however, during weekends, many of these children face hunger due to limited or no access to food. The Kids Weekend Meals program addresses this issue by providing nutritious, kid-friendly meals for these children to enjoy over the weekend.

Who receives food from this program?
The Food Bank works with school principals, administrators, staff and parent liaisons to identify elementary school children at risk of hunger or food insecurity.
How do students receive the food?
The Weekend Meal Kits are either delivered directly to participating schools or are picked up from the Food Bank by school staff.
When are students given the Weekend Meal Kits?
It is delivered to participating schools or school staff picks it up from the Food Bank.
The Weekend Meals kits are then distributed to qualified students on Fridays.
Feeding America Reports that "The number of people living in food insecure households in the United States in 2023 increased to 47 million, including nearly 14 million children, according to a report released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture."
The Kid's Weekend Meals program is designed to provide food for children living in food insecurity. Many of the children we serve are homeless; all are considered ‘food insecure’ or unable to tell where their next meal will come from. The program helps provide food that children take home on weekends and holidays when the school is closed and access to meals provided by the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch program is cut off. The food is kid-friendly, nonperishable, and easy to eat. Each school designs their own site distribution plan so that kids are not embarrassed by their participation in the program.
What if the whole family is food insecure?
We have had incidents where the need was to provide a “family rescue box” that will feed a family of 4 for up to 4 days either in addition to or instead of the Weekend Meals kit. This item is not used weekly but rather as an as needed resource that the school will preorder and have on hand.
As reported by Feeding America, the Kids Weekend Meals Program has been helping children get nutritious and easy-to-prepare food they need over the course of the weekend. The Feeding America network hosts over 10,000 Backpack Programs across the United States and in 2022 served over 54 million meals.