2024 Summer Hunger Summits - In Review
Written by Abby Ryan, AmeriCorps VISTA on UWKC’s Child Nutrition Team
Last month, the Child Nutrition Team at United Way of King County (UWKC) hosted three regional Summer Hunger Summits, where connections were built and ideas generated that will translate into thousands of meals served in the fast-approaching summer months. With events in the Puget Sound, Spokane, and Yakima, UWKC brought together Free Summer Meals stakeholders from over 35 organizations across the state for an in-person opportunity to expand knowledge, share community-specific experiences around childhood summer hunger, and plant seeds of connection between organizations.
Attendees were joined by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and a diverse group of local leaders from school districts, city and state government, the Confederated Tribes of the Yakima Nation, faith-based nonprofits, and grassroots organizations.
Each summit hosted a space for attendees to learn about the current landscape of summer hunger in their community, hear about newly emerging best practices federal child nutrition programs, and nurture candid conversations around opportunities to better support food-insecure youth in accessing summer food support.
Food Security Associate Director Sara Seelmeyer started each summit with an energizing speech, exclaiming that “it’s time to get feisty about fighting childhood summer hunger in Washington!”
The summit attendees naturally embodied this feisty attitude throughout each day— eagerly taking in new strategies for maximizing access to summer food programs and brainstorming strategic applications of these best practices. Through the intermingling of “dream big” brainstorm prompts with discussion of lived challenges in this work, each stakeholder worked to find possible solutions lying between their wildest wishes and their current struggles.
Sessions revolved around three main topic areas:
Best practices for Free Summer Meals sites and sponsors
Common barriers and challenges for sites and sponsors, both longstanding and newly emerging as we navigate with the impacts of the pandemic
Applying learnings and generating approaches for each unique barrier
With a mix of long time Free Summer Meals champions and community organizations just stepping into the program, no stone went unturned:
School districts with tens of meal sites offered wisdom from years of persevering through all kinds of challenges, while those new to the scene offered untapped perspectives of the needs of specific populations that are currently falling through the cracks.
Farmers with an abundance of food connected with nutrition directors lacking fresh produce.
Community organizations with safe sites, but no activities, connected with other community organizations who had an abundance of activities, but nowhere to safely set them up.
Nonprofits with the ability to freely feed adults connected with other site sponsors struggling with the inability of Free Summer Meals to serve caregivers.
Non-congregate sites — grab-and-go sites eligible only in rural areas, in which home-delivery is also an option — were a sub-focus of these summits, as the demand for grab-and-go is still extremely high in both rural and urban areas.
Each discussion was finished with a “dream big” brainstorm. If financial, resource, and labor barriers didn’t exist, what would make the perfect Free Summer Meals operation?
Ultimately, this emphasized the relative accessibility of our ideal Free Summer Meals operations that present themselves when we come together as a community. At one table, a newer site sponsor shared their dream scenario of offering adult meals for caregivers at the same location as a Free Summer Meals site. When a sponsor at another table overheard this, she leaned back, eagerly handing over a business card and a promise to connect this new sponsor with a nonprofit in the same area capable of serving free adult meals. She even had a specific, safe, and high traffic area in mind!
Building partnerships opens the door for stakeholders to tap into wider networks, share resources, and offer even greater benefits to participants—all with the end goal of mobilizing partners to expand access to summer meals programs. As we head into the summer, we’re eager to watch these partnerships take hold in the community and accelerate the fight against summer hunger.
Looking to become a Free Summer Meals sponsor, or seeking help with your current site?
Reach out to UWKC for support at any time!