This time of year a familiar conversation typically takes place between Nicole Morgan and her children.

The eager youth give Morgan daily reminders to take them to nearest location of Meet Up and Eat Up, an initiative to offset a decrease in regular meals many students experience during summer break.

“This event is beautiful. Every morning they say, ‘I want to go to the lunch program,’” says Morgan. “I make sure I get them there.”

With two out of five children in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties, qualifying for free and reduced-cost meals, Meet Up and Eat Up, a Michigan No Kid Hungry (MNKH) initiative, has attracted thousands of families like Morgan’s. The program has 1,400 sites statewide including Genesee, Kent, Ingham, and Kalamazoo Counties.

During the school year, publicly funded school breakfast and lunch programs fill the nourishment gap for low-income families in urban communities. That’s critical. Hunger and missed meals drastically impair children’s development and classroom performance.

Now that school’s out that gap is no longer filled.

“We’ve been working with partners across the region to try and close the gap between the meals kids get during the school year through the free and reduced lunch program and the meals they get in the summer,” says Sara Gold, director of United Way of Southeastern Michigan’s Healthy Kids Program.

United Way serves as a liaison between the State of Michigan and community partners that implement Meet Up and Eat Up as meal-providers. The program is an evolution of the 40-year-old U.S. Department of Agriculture’s nationwide Summer Food Service Program.

While 580,000 Michigan students receive free and reduced-cost lunches, only about 17.5 percent will access a summer meal program of any kind, according to a 2014 United Way report.

“When the school year ends it’s difficult for parents to balance their meal budgets,” Gold says. “So a lot of parents rely on those school meals to make sure the kids are fed nutritious food during the year. Then, all of a sudden, school’s out. So we know, statistically, it’s a time when hunger increases.”

Although leisurely summer days don’t typically lend themselves to a consistent schedule for kids to eat, Meet Up & Eat Up simulates lunchroom settings at churches, community centers, libraries and even playgrounds.

“We have to kind of recreate that structure for them with a patchwork of places where they can go and get these free meals,” adds Gold.

Meet Up & Eat Up collaborates with community action networks, food banks and other support sources to identify various vendors that prepare and deliver the meals.

A typical Meet Up and Eat Up plate might contain a chicken wrap sandwich, carrot sticks, and a side of crackers, served with low-fat milk.

“We’re working to make sure those plates are really appealing and that anyone who walks in and sees them would want their children to have those meals,” says Gold.

The word “lunch” is used loosely to describe Meet Up gatherings, as partners and coordinators have discretion to schedule the best time of day to feed kids in targeted neighborhoods, identified by numbers of low-income households. Anyone 18 or younger can show up at a site and eat at no cost. Students older than 18, who receive school district services such as disability support, may also participate.

Gatherings might take on diverse forms, including meal service at football practices or mobile delivery, like the Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeast Michigan vehicle. Even common courtyards of some privately owned housing complexes might qualify as Meet Up& Eat Up locations, Gold says.

While no one should be turned away at a site, researching drop-in friendly host locations such as these might prevent students from feeling out of place if a particular youth group or team is the majority served there.

“If you didn’t sign up for that vacation bible school, but it’s the nearest location, you should be able to eat there,” she says.

The 2016 effort will be highlighted by block parties that feature inflatable “bounce houses” and face-painting in all seven Detroit districts. The celebrations will be free to the community, in addition to scheduled Meet Up & Eat Up meals.

Part of United Way’s mission is to lead outreach and inform as many families and communities as possible that Meet Up & Eat Up meals are available from the last day of class until mid-August. Some programs even incorporate special activities or programming, like the YMCA, which delivers food and leads physical activity sessions. Families can learn about the nearest Meet Up times and locations by dialing 2-1-1 for referral sites closest to their home or by texting the word “FOOD” to 877877.

In 2014, 3.76 million meals were served statewide, with 1.65 million served in Southeast Michigan. There are almost 800 locations in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. In July 2014, Kent County served a total of 242,583 meals, followed by 181,261 meals served in Genesee, 100,812 in Saginaw, and 82,142 in Ingham. Most of the numbers represented increases from the previous summer’s, according to United Way.

Supported by partnerships with professional sports teams like the Detroit Lions and appearances at outdoor markets, Meet Up and Eat Up has begun gaining visibility.

“We’ve come such a long way in the past couple of years,” Gold says, “getting all those organizations to collaborate and speak with one voice about just how important it is to get a nutritious meal.”

Editor’s Note: To find a Meet Up and Eat Up location dial 2-1-1 or text “Food” to 877-877

  Detroit Lions, Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeast Michigan, Healthy Food Access, Meet Up and Eat Up, Sara Gold, U.S. Department of Agriculture, United Way of Southeastern Michigan’s Healthy Kids Program

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