With the school year over, children and their families can find free summer meal sites on an Indiana Department of Education database.
The 2023 Summer Food Service Program has more than 1,000 locations statewide, including dozens of sites in Johnson County. All Indiana students ages 18 and younger can eat at school buildings in the Clark-Pleasant, Greenwood, Franklin and Indian Creek school districts, along with several county private schools and child care centers. Families can find an interactive map of the locations by visiting IDOEnutrition.com. They can also get more information, including meal distribution hours, by calling 1-866-3-HUNGRY or 1-877-8-HAMBRE for Spanish, according to a news release from the Indiana Department of Education.
People can also reach the National Hunger Hotline through text messaging. They can get text “summer meals” to 914-342-7744 for information in English or text “verano” to the same number for information in Spanish, according to the release.
Children must eat the meals while still at the feeding sites, unless the site is in a rural area or has been pre-approved for non-congregate meal service.
The IDOE administers the Summer Food Service Program, which receives federal funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The program has been around more than 40 years and was designed to meet the needs of children from low-income families who may have limited access to good nutrition, the release said.
