Roughly 50% of the children in our area participate in the free or reduced lunch program at school. But when summer recess arrives, those kids are no longer guaranteed to get what might have been their only nutritious meal of the day.
That’s where PVEN’s Summer Meals program comes in. PVEN takes USDA approved meals to kids over the summer in the places where kids hang out: The park, the library, or in summer remedial and sports programs. Depending on the venue, PVEN may deliver only lunches, or it may deliver breakfast too!
In its first year, 2016, PVEN delivered 3600 meals to hungry kids. By 2018 program blossomed into 9000-10,000 meals served per summer! That means a lot – not just to hungry kids, but also to worried moms and dads who can feel comfortable that their kids have a better chance at staying healthy, keeping alert, and retaining the knowledge they learned over the previous school year – all things that perpetually hungry kids struggle to maintain. That makes them better prepared to succeed when they return to school the following fall!