From Chair Janet Ingraham Dwyer, CSLP’s Child and Community Well-Being Committee:
The CSLP’s Child and Community Well-Being Committee (CCWB) has created two resources to support and facilitate public library participation in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and other ways to help connect kids and teens with healthy food when school is out.
One is an online Libraries and Summer Food how-to guide now available on the CSLP website. The other is a two-sided Summer Meals factsheet for libraries, featuring key statistics about child hunger and SFSP, brief talking points for library involvement, and a brief step-by-step guide to determining SFSP eligibility and getting started.
Thanks to the CCWB Committee for these resources. State reps and SLA staff on this committee include chair Janet Ingraham Dwyer,
Rebecca Antill, Chris Farrar, Lisa Hechesky, Danielle Margarida, April Mazza, Sharon Rawlins, and Carrie Sanders. Big shout-out to Danielle who researched, compiled, and designed the Summer Meals factsheet.
The Libraries and Summer Food how-to guide link and description and fact sheet are below. Please share both widely. As the factsheet notes, only a small fraction of children and teens who receive free school meals also participate in summer meal programs. There is so much unrealized potential, and so many kids needlessly going without in the summer. Thank you for everything you do to encourage libraries to participate in SFSP or other activities that support child well-being.
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Libraries and Summer Food
www.cslpreads.org/libraries-and-summer-food
A how-to guide to help libraries connect kids and teens with healthy food when school is out.
The guide begins with an overview of the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), a federally funded, state-administered program.
Next is a checklist for libraries to determine their eligibility and take the first steps toward becoming an SFSP site.
For libraries not in geographic areas that are eligible for SFSP, or for whom SFSP is not a good fit, there’s a section on alternatives to SFSP and other ways to help. This section is also for those who don’t plan to serve food at the library, but still want to support summer feeding.
Next is a collection of tips, checklists, best practices, and innovative ideas to plan for a successful summer, from space considerations, to programming, to staffing, and more, including basic talking points and additional advocacy and awareness materials to build support.
Finally, a resource list gathers links to essential and supplemental sources to help librarians connect children and teens in their communities to healthy food throughout the summer.
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Summer Food Service Program for New Hampshire Website
https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/1740
