When the final bell rings this school year, most children will be looking forward to summer break. But for many families we serve, summer is a time of uncertainty.

School provides a critical resource: free or reduced-price meals. These meals are important to ensuring children have consistent access to healthy food. When there’s no school, there are no school meals.

The summer meal gap has a huge impact on families like Ruth’s. That’s where we come in.

Ruth visits our Mobile Pantry at least once a week to pick up fresh veggies and makes them into hearty soups that her children love. It’s how she ensures her family has the healthy food they need to learn and grow.

Two of her three children are school-aged. With her family’s budget already stretched thin, summer is a stressful time because, “food is expensive.”

That’s why we have the Summer Produce Challenge, which provides fresh fruits and veggies to help the 1 in 5 people we serve. When you donate to the Summer Produce Challenge now through July 15, your gift will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, up to $100,000.

If we meet that goal, it will provide an additional 500,000 meals to children this summer. Imagine the impact that will have on families in our community!

Bridging the summer meal gap puts an enormous burden on families. The choices they face – food or rent, food or medicine, food or gas to get to work – are decisions no one should have to make. You can change that. With your help, we can end summer hunger.