Starting in the next few weeks, more than 1,200 kids at the Santa Monica Boys and Girls Club and the Mar Vista Family Center in Culver City will be provided free breakfast and lunch.
During the school year, more than 21 million kids nationwide receive free and reduced-price meals, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But when school lets out for the summer, only 3.8 million children participate in summer meal programs. One in four children in Los Angeles struggles with hunger, and Los Angeles County tops the list of counties with the most children living in fear of food insecurity, according to Feeding America. The Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation provides grants to local Sodexo teams to ensure kids at risk of hunger in the community receive nourishment during summer. In LA, Sodexo’s dining services team at Loyola Marymount University volunteer to prepare and distribute the meals.
