Montana Food Bank Network in Partnership with No Kid Hungry, Knows the Impact of Summer Meals for Kids

In Power, MT, Becky Taylor is the one who ensures kids have delicious and nutritious meals over the summer months. She talks about how she started the program in 2023, “I surveyed the community, to see what would work best for families.” The options on the survey consisted of every-day pickups, a few times a week, and once a week. Families chose once a week. The Summer Food Service Program or SFSP allows eligible sites to serve free meals for kids under 18, and receive federal reimbursements for each meal served. Before the pandemic, schools could only serve sit-down or “congregate” meals through SFSP, meaning that families would have to bring each child to eat breakfast and then again for lunch. During the pandemic, the federal government expanded SFSP to include to-go or “non-congregate” options, where families could pick-up on behalf of the child. 2024 is the first year where non-congregate is a permanent option for rural schools. When asked why non-congregate was a better option, Becky explained the once a week distribution made it easier for families to access food in their rural areas by making the trip to town worth-while. “What makes Becky’s program special” says Laura Toeckes, the Food Service Director at Power School, “is that 40-50% is cooked from scratch. She cooks fresh muffins, pasta, and salads. When I went camping with my family this summer, one of my kids missed her pasta dish.” Becky’s mini penne pasta dish has green peppers, onions, pepperoni, sausage and Montana Marinara. “Kids vote with their forks,” says Samantha Dennison, Child Nutrition Manager at MFBN. Between last summer and this one, the numbers doubled from about 40 students participating to 80. In total, Becky served 3,645 meals in summer 2024. Thanks to dedicated staff like Becky, summer meal programs not only exist but can flourish in Montana.