VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — School may be out for the summer, but Virginia Beach City Public Schools workers are still busy making meals — this week, they began their summer meal program.
“Summer is fun, it’s a nice break, but it also can be challenging for a lot of families to have meals all the time,” said Rachel Amato, the director of food services for VBCPS.
The program, dubbed “SUN Meals,” is run in conjunction with the USDA. It’s available for free for students Monday through Thursday each week until August 12th. Those participating can pick up some fresh fruit and veggies for breakfast and lunch
“You learn better when you have food, even in the summer months. When you’re learning and doing things, and learning how to play and doing your summer fun, that’s also learning as a kid. So I think food is super Important to any life,” Amato told News 3.
There will be two open sites from this week onward at Brookwood and Luxford Elementary Schools. After July 7, they will open up 20 more sites for the rest of the summer.
“No sign up required, it’s just an open site, just come on in, ring our doorbell and we’ll feed you,” said Amato.
Virginia Beach isn’t the only city feeding kids. All school districts in our area are offering summer meal programs. In Suffolk, their program is brand new this year. It’s called Food for Good, and they send 10 meals per week directly to the family homes.
Below is more information on every summer meal program in the seven cities. Some require a sign up beforehand, some require you to just show up.
“I know we’re the only ones in the seven cities doing this program,” said Lawrence Whiting with Suffolk Public Schools.
Whiting is the Director for Food Nutritional Services for the district, and says that more than 2200 students have already registered for this service. It will run through August 18, so there’s still plenty of time to sign up.
“The city is so large that it takes a while for some kids for some kids to get to a school to get some food. We want to make sure all the students have food over the summer. So this program makes it easier to send it to their house,” he said.
