The Y’s Summer Food Program Will Serve Nearly 300,000 Youth this Summer

As the unofficial start to summer fast approaches, the Y, one of the nation’s leading non-profit organizations, recently announced a new partnership with cookbook author Leanne Brown (Good and Cheap) to raise awareness for their free Summer Food Program.

 

Estimated to serve over 7.2 million meals and snacks to nearly 300,000 youth this summer, the Y’s Summer Food Program provides nutritious food, as well as activities, to keep kids’ minds and bodies active when the school year ends.

 

The Summer Food Program, in its seventh year, is part of an existing national partnership between Y-USA and the Walmart Foundation to address child hunger, which is more prevalent in communities during the summertime. Made possible by a 15 month, $7.1 million grant from the Walmart Foundation, the Y is better able to reach kids in need.

 

Leanne Brown’s cookbook Good and Cheap provides an avenue to healthy and affordable meals by educating readers on how to prepare nutritious recipes to eat on $4/day—the average amount of money a person receives from the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Brown’s understanding of the need to provide nourishment and access to food to those who need it most makes her a powerful partner to help raise awareness for the Summer Food Program.

 

As part of the partnership, McDaniel, together with Brown will visit multiple Y locations across the U.S. to share insights about the program and ways to shop for healthy foods, prepare basic dishes on a limited food budget, and utilize what people may already have in their pantries to make wholesome meals.

 

Y locations include:

·         YMCA of Greater Boston

·         YMCA of Greater Rochester

·         YMCA of Middle Tennessee

·         YMCA of Greater Indianapolis

 

Members of the community living in the vicinity of each of the Y locations listed above are encouraged to contact their local Y to learn more about these visits and to become involved. To learn more about the Y’s Summer Food Program, visit ymca.net/summerfood.