How to help

There are many ways for individuals and organizations to get involved with children’s meal programs.

• Volunteer
• Become a sponsor
• Start a summer meals site
• Organize a summer meal program
• Give time or money to a local summer meals program
• Resources for sponsors and site operators

Become a sponsor

Sponsors are the summertime superstars who make the program happen. Their responsibilities include preparing or purchasing meals, serving meals (or arranging for them to be served), tracking income and expenditures, ensuring that program regulations are met, and handling reimbursements.

Organizations eligible to sponsor a summer meals program include:

• Schools (public or private non-profit)
• Government agencies
• Private non-profit organizations
• Churches
• Public or private non-profit camps, universities or colleges

Please note that organizations considering applying to become a new sponsor must attend an application training in late February or early March, and applications are due in mid-April. However, even if you’ve missed the deadline for this year, it is never too early to start planning for next year!

See also:

• Summer food handbook: Summer Food Made Easy
• Sponsor and site operator resources

Start a summer meals site

To find out which sponsors operate in your area, call Partners for a Hunger Free Oregon, 503-595-5501, or see the meal sites list.

If you work with children during the summer but don’t have the capacity to be a summer food sponsor, you still may be able to work with an existing sponsor in your area to serve meals to your participants. Many summer food sponsors are willing to provide food for other programs if those programs meet the requirements and will provide staff and a place to serve the food.

To be an open site, your program must be located within the boundaries of a school where at least 50% of the students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. Some sites that don’t meet that requirement may also be able to qualify based on Census data, housing statistics, income of families in their program, or other factors.

Organize people in your community to begin a summer meal program

There are still many communities in Oregon with hungry children and eligible areas but no program. Often all that is needed is a concerned citizen to lead the charge and convince local decision makers that this program can be a vital part of the summertime community for families.

There are many ways to approach this task. A great place to start is by holding a community meeting and inviting parents, educators, government officials, service providers and other people who are concerned about children’s well-being to discuss possibilities and make plans.

Because this is a question we are frequently asked, we have also included some information on this topic in our summer food handbook, Summer Food Made Easy.

Give time or money to a local summer meals program

Most summer meal programs operate on a very tight budget and would benefit from community support.

Although the US Department of Agriculture reimburses sponsors for the costs of preparing and serving meals, no money is provided to help with activities, and the reimbursement might not be enough to cover the whole cost of the program, for instance if transportation or food costs are especially high or if the sponsor would like to offer a higher quality or variety of food. In these cases, programs can often use donations of time, money or food to help provide these “extra” services.

For more information, contact the sponsors or site operators in your area to determine what is most needed in your community. If you need help making that contact, please feel free to contact Oregon Hunger Relief Task Force staff for assistance.