BECOME A SPONSOR
Sponsors are organizations that manage summer meal sites and operate under the Summer Food Service Program ran by the USDA. As a sponsor, you will:
- Attend your State agency’s training
- Locate and recruit eligible sites
- Hire, train, and supervise staff and volunteers
- Arrange for meals to be prepared or delivered
- Monitor your sites
- Prepare claims for reimbursement
- Ensure that your Summer Food project and sites are sustainable through community partnerships, fundraising, and volunteer recruitment.
The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) ensures that low-income children continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session. It is a federally-funded, state-administered program that reimburses providers who serve free healthy meals to children and teens in low-income areas during the summer months.
Sponsors must be organizations that are fully capable of managing a food service program. To be a sponsor, you must follow regulations and be responsible, financially and administratively, for running your program.
The following types of organizations can be sponsors:
- Public or private nonprofit schools
- Units of local, municipal, county, tribal, or State government
- Private nonprofit organizations
- Public or private nonprofit camps
- Public or private nonprofit universities or colleges
A sponsor can manage multiple sites. Meal service sites may be located in a variety of settings, including schools, recreation centers, playgrounds, parks, churches, community centers, day camps, residential summer camps, housing projects, and migrant centers, or on Indian reservations. For more information, visit USDA’s How to become a Sponsor.
Refer to the USDA’s resource on How to Become a Sponsor.