New Jersey Summer Meals for Kids: 2020 Snapshot

The New Jersey Summer Meals for Kids: 2020 Snapshot is Hunger Free New Jersey’s analysis of NJ Department of Agriculture data regarding participation in two federal child nutrition programs: the Summer Food Service Program and the Seamless Summer Option program.
Hunger Free New Jersey determined that while New Jersey communities have steadily expanded summer meal service over the past several years, in 2019, communities only reached about one quarter of low-income students, leaving far too many without this critical nutrition that can help them return to school in the fall ready to learn.

According to this 2020 snapshot, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts, non-profits and their community partners served free meals to twice as many eligible children as in 2019 and that for the first time ever, New Jersey exceeded a national benchmark of reaching 40 percent of children who receive free or low-cost school lunch.

Click here to read more and to download the report.