Where do hungry kids get fed when school is out and free lunch programs vanish? Head to the splash pads.

Magna • Zuri Sadai and her 9-year-old daughter decided to walk over to nearby Magna Regional Park on a Friday this month.

When they got there, someone told Sadai that there was free lunch available for her daughter. After picking up a little brown sack from a pair of Utah Food Bank staff members, the two sat down in the grass to eat.

It was the first time they had heard of the free summer meals program for kids. Sadai plans on coming back.

“Right now, I’m unemployed and I have four kids,” she said in Spanish. “This program would help me and my budget a lot.”

The food bank hands out lunches here to every child under 18 who wants one from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. every weekday through mid-August. It’s one of about 80 free summer meal sites in the Salt Lake Valley hosted by the food bank and local school districts. More than 50 of those sites are located west of Interstate 15.

The program, paid for by the federal Department of Agriculture, is a big deal because it aims to fill the summertime gap in nutrition for kids. During the school year, many children from low-income families qualify for free and reduced lunch, and can often get breakfast at their campuses, too. When school is out, however, those opportunities are not available, leaving some to either eat less nutritious food or struggle with hunger.

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Where do hungry kids get fed when school is out and free lunch programs vanish? Head to the splash pads.

Where do hungry kids get fed when school is out and free lunch programs vanish? Head to the splash pads.

Where do hungry kids get fed when school is out and free lunch programs vanish? Head to the splash pads.

Where do hungry kids get fed when school is out and free lunch programs vanish? Head to the splash pads.

Where do hungry kids get fed when school is out and free lunch programs vanish? Head to the splash pads.