The South Dakota Department of Education’s office of Child and Adult Nutrition Services is looking for sponsors for a federally funded program that provides nutritious meals and snacks to children in low-income areas during the summer months.
Community organizations, nonprofits, schools, tribal and local governments can apply to be sponsors if they operate in low-income areas, serve a group of mostly low-income children or operate a summer camp with a high proportion of low-income participants. Parks and recreation departments, city and county health departments, libraries and neighborhood service agencies can participate as sites or sponsors.
Sponsors are needed statewide, with especially high need for new sponsors in the following counties: Brule, Buffalo, Corson, Dewey, Gregory, Haakon, Hand, Hyde, Jones, Stanley, Aurora, Bennett, Butte, Charles Mix, Clark, Clay, Deuel, Jackson, Kingsbury, Miner, Turner and Union.
Brigitta Bly, program specialist with South Dakota’s Child and Adult Nutrition Services, says when school is out during the summer, access to healthy meals is limited for many children. She says the Summer Food Service Program helps children in low‐income areas continue to receive healthy food, but because of a shortage of sponsors, not all kids have access to the meals. She says in the summer of 2019, only about 16% of children in need were reached.
Organizations interested in reviewing sponsor responsibilities are invited to use the SFSP pre-screen tool at https://ican.sd.gov/ican/PreScreen/PreScreenOverview.aspx by April 2. Once eligibility is determined, department staff will contact sponsors with more information.
To learn more about serving as a sponsor or site, call Child and Adult Nutrition Services at 605-773-3413. For more information, go to http://doe.sd.gov/cans/sfsp.aspx.
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