Summer Meal Sites Opening Now

June 21, 2012 Connect families to summer meals   School is ending and summer meal programs will be starting!  OSPI trained more than 180 program sponsors across the state for summer 2012. WithinReach partners with OSPI to publicize summer meal programs all through the summer. Right now we have information about 714 sites across Washington and more will be added over the next few weeks:   Help us spread the word.  Families can find their closest meal site when they: Use the Summer Meals Search Tool that displays sponsor, site and meal information with online mapping tools Call the multilingual Family Food Hotline 1-888-4-FOOD-WA(1-888-436-6392)  Text FoodWA to 877-877 (NEW this year!) Dairy Council promotes summer meals on the radio   Special thanks to the Washington Dairy Council for their continuing support of the Summer Meals Program.  Radio ads playing across the state during the last three weeks of June will help families find a local site by advertising ParentHelp123.org and the Family Food Hotline. Expanded partnerships are getting the message out statewide   Working together, we are getting the word to communities across Washington: Northwest Harvest, Food Lifeline and Second Harvest Inland NW will distribute 50,000 summer meal cards through food banks across the state again this year. Washington Food Coalition encouraged their food bank network to publicize summer meals through regional hunger summits and newsletters. DSHS has published the Family Food Hotline on its homepage and is partnering with Children’s Alliance to distribute 30,000 info cards through Community Service Offices. WithinReach is partnering with the Department of Health to distribute 28,000 summer meals cards to WIC clinics. School’s Out Washington has been spreading the word about summer meals through their WA Afterschool Network and Feed Your Brain grantees. United Way of King County is sponsoring bus ads and recruiting volunteers to distribute summer meals door-hangers in King County neighborhoods. Keep kids coming to sites all Summer   Successful outreach helps make a successful meal program. Help feed more kids this summer - use flyers, press releases, public service announcements and more to tell families and service providers about local summer meal sites. Download/Print a summer meals flyer (English/Spanish) Order free summer meal rack cards to distribute Outreach tools and strategies More information about Summer Meals is available on the Resource Toolkit   NEW Summer Meals Widget from ParentHelp123.org   Help spread the word about summer meals by placing a widget on your organization's website. It's simple to use - type in a zip code and click the arrow to display a list of sites where kids and teens can access free meals and snacks in their communities.  Email Sue Waldin for a copy of the Widget's HTML Code Provide the code to staff who edit/maintain your website The WA Summer Meals Partnership sends periodic newsletters to keep statewide partners up-to-date on the latest information about the Summer Meals Program.  http://www.icontact-archive.com/C9ZecoQL5yw3xrxuUf8TXoPAMBshtPDe?w=4