Children in the City of Rochester have dozens of options to pick up free, healthy meals all summer long.

The Summer Meals Partnership of Rochester is a collaborative effort by the City of Rochester, the Rochester City School District and several local nonprofits to ensure children have access to healthy meals after the school year ends. Meals continued to be offered as “grab-and-go” options – a measure put in place last year due to COVID restrictions. With those restrictions lifted in New York State, however, many sites are operating traditional summer programming and offer opportunities for children to stay to participate in physical and other enrichment activities.

Many schools began serving Summer Meals June 25, while many other sites – such as R-Centers – start on July 6.

A full list of Summer Meals sites, such as R-Centers, libraries, schools and other community locations, is available at www.SummerMealsROC.org, or by calling 2-1-1.

All city residents who are 18 and younger are eligible for the Summer Meals program. There is no paperwork required, and youth or adults can simply show up during the scheduled times and pick up meals to bring home. The Summer Meals schedule also includes several “mobile meals” stops and delivery routes to reach more city neighborhoods – a partnership developed between Foodlink and the Regional Transit Service (RTS) last year.

Foodlink, the City of Rochester and the Rochester City School District – which have been overcoming barriers to feed as many Rochester children as possible after the pandemic forced schools to close in 2020 – collaborate with community partners such as Common Ground Health and Rochester Area Community Foundation to organize and promote Summer Meals each year.

Last year’s Summer Meals program served nearly 450,000 meals – with an average daily participation rate of more than 5,300 children.