Innovating School Breakfast

Our vision for school meals is that no child is segregated by their family’s income. KY Kids Eat believes that instead of serving breakfast in the cafeteria before the bell, schools should make breakfast part of the regular school day.

By investing in infrastructure and opening access through state legislation, KY Kids Eat believes school breakfast participation will reach the 70% benchmark by the 2019-2020 school year.

Increasing Impact for Summer and Afterschool Meals

Summer is the most vulnerable time for food insecure Kentucky kids. The KY Kids Eat coalition has seen over a 10% increase in summer meals in both 2016 and 2017. We expect similar significant growth again this year.

In 2018, KY Kids Eat is providing $215,000 in funding to support mobile routes and the purchase of local foods, enrichment programming, volunteers, or other support to over half the of the 200+ summer sponsors.

KY Kids Eat anticipates that summer meals served will reach 3.7 million by summer 2020.

Kentucky has some of the lowest participation in afterschool meals nationwide, with only 5.4% of kids eligible receiving meals. Awareness and training among eligible organizations is lacking, and the enrichment requirements is a roadblock for some sponsors.

Through targeted funding opportunities, training, and increased awareness, KY Kids Eat will see double the number of meals served by 2020 to 7.38 million meals.

Advocacy

We work with elected officials and government agencies to strengthen and improve meal programs in Kentucky. Our advocacy work on a state and national level amplifies the impact of each dollar invested in our mission.