The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) began in 1968 as an amendment to the National School Lunch Act. Today, it is operated in a multitude of sites and sponsors across the entirety of the United States of America. SFSP exists to work towards alleviating food insecurity among school-aged children by providing healthy, nutritious meals at no cost to all students under the age of 18 in eligible areas.
We at Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas have been privileged to operate as a program sponsor since 2015. In fact, just this year we celebrated our tenth anniversary as sponsors of the program! We began in 2015 with just 11 sites and served a total of 6,078 meals. Since then, the program has grown to 19 sites with 25 different meal service options serving 23,685 total meals to school-aged children in 2025 alone.
None of this would be possible without our volunteers and community partners. Of our 19 sites in 2025, only two were run and operated by Catholic Charities staff members. The rest were operated almost entirely by city librarians, church and parish congregants, students, and community members inside libraries, churches, colleges, and recreation and neighborhood centers. We genuinely could not serve the families that we serve without these people’s and places’ generosity of time and heart!
We hope to see the program continue to grow in the coming years. Thus, we look forward with expectation and hope to seeing all that God wishes to do in and through it as we seek to serve our neighbors in need in both our metro and rural communities.
