While children are in school, they are guaranteed a meal and access to educational materials. Once the school bell rings it’s last chime in May, many children lose the security that comes with school enrollment. That’s why United Way of Brevard and The Children’s Hunger Project have partnered together to provide the Summer Feed & Read program.
This program is designed to ensure that children in all areas of Brevard County have access to food and books during the crucial summer months. Most summer meal sites provide educational, enrichment or recreational activities that keep children learning, active and safe when school is not in session.
The Summer Feed and Read program mobilizes a network of schools, community centers, churches, and parks and recreation sites. Each site provides breakfast and/or lunch for children through the Summer Break Spot program during the week. Our program ensures that each child will receive reading-level appropriate books to keep as a personal library and provides food to take home for the weekends.
Summer food sites that provide a place for children to socialize, learn, and be engaged while receiving a healthy meal help overcome both summer hunger and summer learning loss, in addition to fostering social and emotional learning. This year UWB and TCHP plan to serve healthy weekend meals to more than 1,000 children and distribute approximately 10,000 books over the span 9 weeks. This life saving program is made possible through the generosity of United Way donors and helps strengthen our community by addressing the crucial challenges that come with hunger and education.
Click here to donate: https://online.uwbrevard.org/FeedandRead
United Way of Brevard assists the efforts of Project Hunger as part of our commitment to improve the health of our community. Project Hunger is a grassroots group focused on providing food to hungry kids during the summer months when kids do not have access to free and reduced price lunches provided at schools during the school year. Project Hunger began as an emergency appeal in 2009 as the ‘great recession’ began and has raised over a half million dollars to fight childhood hunger in Brevard. The intent for Project Hunger was to be a time-limited appeal to address the concerns of childhood hunger during the summer months, but the concerns continue.