More Than a Meal: Helping Families Afford Summer

When school lets out for the summer, families don’t just lose access to school meals, their grocery bills go up, too.

For households already navigating the rising cost of housing, food, childcare, and other essentials, providing additional meals throughout the summer can place even more strain on a tight budget. Our Free Summer Lunch for Kids program helps ease that pressure while ensuring children continue to have access to fresh, nutritious food when school is out.

Each weekday this summer, our team served approximately 500 meals across five sites. These meals gave kids a welcoming place to enjoy healthy food while giving parents and caregivers one less expense to worry about.

But hunger doesn’t take the weekend off. Through our partnership with the Montana Food Bank Network, we also distributed nonperishable weekend food boxes to children in Bozeman, Gallatin Gateway, Big Sky, and Three Forks. Together, the daily meals and weekend food boxes helped families stretch their grocery budgets while keeping kids nourished throughout the week.

Summer Lunch is about more than filling plates. It is one of the ways we help make life a little more affordable for local families. Every free meal means more room in a household budget for rent, utilities, transportation, school supplies, and other necessities. It also helps children return to school ready to learn, grow, and thrive.

As the new school year begins, our 2026 Summer Lunch season will wrap up on Wednesday, August 26. We are grateful to every team member, partner, and community supporter who helped make this program possible.

We are especially thankful to the Bozeman Library Friends and Foundation for funding our Bozeman Public Library meal site. Their support helped local children enjoy fresh, nutritious lunches while making summer a little healthier (and more affordable) for families throughout our community.