Cherokee Nation
Good News! SUN Bucks is Available in Your Location
Find stores near you that accept SUN Bucks, or learn how to qualify and apply.
Find stores near you that accept SUN Bucks, or learn how to qualify and apply.
Find stores near you that accept SUN Bucks, or learn how to qualify and apply.
Find stores near you that accept SUN Bucks, or learn how to qualify and apply.
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You know that children who miss school breakfast and lunch are more likely to be sick, absent or tardy, disruptive in class, and inattentive. They also score lower on achievement tests. Good nutrition is essential for learning in school. SFSP provides an opportunity to continue a child's physical and social development while providing nutritious meals during long vacation periods from school. It helps children return to school ready to learn.
The Food and Nutrition Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, administers SFSP at the federal level. State education agencies administer the program in most states. In some areas, the state health or social service department or an FNS regional office may be designated.
Locally, SFSP is run by approved sponsors, including school districts, local government agencies, camps, or private nonprofit organizations. Sponsors provide free meals to a group of children at a central site, such as a school or a community center. They receive payments from USDA, through their state agencies, for the meals they serve.
States approve SFSP meal sites as open, enrolled, or camp sites.
Units of local government, camps, schools, and private nonprofit organizations can sponsor the SFSP. If your organization already provides services to the community, and has capable staff and good management practices to run a food service, you can sponsor the SFSP.
As a sponsor, you will attend the state agency's training, locate eligible sites, hire, train and supervise staff, arrange for meals to be prepared and delivered, monitor sites and prepare claims for reimbursement.
Many organizations, particularly smaller ones, may want to consider operating a feeding site, such as a recreational or enrichment program. Many sponsors would welcome such an arrangement.
If you supervise a site, you will attend your sponsor's training, supervise activities and the meal service, keep daily records of meals served, store food appropriately, and keep the site clean and sanitary. You should contact the state agency indicating your interest as a site, or find a local sponsor and make your own arrangements.
Children 18 and younger may receive free meals and snacks through SFSP.
Meals and snacks are also available to persons with disabilities, over age 18, who participate in school programs for people who are mentally or physically disabled.
At most sites, children receive either one or two reimbursable meals each day. Camps and sites that primarily serve migrant children may be approved to serve up to three meals to each child, each day.
SFSP was first created as part of a larger pilot program in 1968. It became a separate program in 1975.
To find a meal service site near where you live, contact organizations in your community that are offering an activity program. Organizations offering activities for children are often local schools, community centers, recreation centers, and faith-based organizations.
You may also call the National Hunger Hotline at 1-866-3-HUNGRY or 1-877-8-HAMBRE. If you are unable to find a site in your area, please contact your state agency and ask for the location of a meal service site in your community.
If there are no meal service sites in your area, you can mobilize your community to sponsor the program. In order for a site to exist in your community, a school, nonprofit organization or local government agency must be the program sponsor and be responsible for the administration of the program. To begin mobilizing your community, contact the following people and groups, and tell them there is an interest in the community to feed children in the summer. Contact:
Volunteer! Our best SFSP sites have organized, well-run activities that keep the interest of the children and teens coming back to the site day after day. Some of these activities include arts and crafts, tutoring, mentoring, drama, sports, computer training, music, gardening, reading programs, cooking or any other creative ideas you may have.
Many sites have enlisted local fire and police departments, local celebrities, local businesses and local political figures to make presentations to their SFSP sites. The only limitation is your imagination.
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, or don't know of a sponsor in your area, contact your state agency.