SFSP/CACFP contributes to the healthy growth, and development of low-income children. It is often accompanied with recreational activities to help address growing evidence of the risk of children becoming obese in the summer and school months.
Many of our SFSP sites also provide educational and enrichment activities in addition to the meals, which enables children to learn and stay safe when school is out, mitigating the harmful effects of summer learning loss and ensuring that children are better prepared for learning when they return to school. The program goals are to increase children’s participation in activities offered at sites and maintain their involvement throughout a structured summer learning program. The program helps parents by ensuring that every child receives a meal during the summer months which decreases the concerns our communities face with children not receiving a full balanced meal each day. Food budgets often increase due to the lack of access to school meals, but summer meal programs can also help mitigate childcare costs due to the programming offered. Youth and children spend a considerable amount of time in Afterschool Centers when schools are not in session, i.e., weekends and after-school hours. As a result, these settings may have an influence on their diet, weight, and food security. They are highly important contexts for interventions to address nutritional health. The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP-At-Risk) also ensures that students have the nutrition they need throughout the day to learn and to effectively participate in further enrichment activities offered at the locations. This program also continues to work towards reducing food insecurity, obesity rates, and poor health in youth and children.
MCES provides full meals, breakfast, lunch, and supper for numerous Afterschool Centers and Organizations. The SFSP program provides nutritious meals at no expense to children in low-income communities during the summer without any need for registrations. Adults with disabilities who are over the age of 18 can also participate in the program. Through the CACFP program, MCES provides snacks, lunch, and supper for numerous locations that are in areas eligible for program participation. Both programs are critical to student’s health and well-being, especially for low-income students. We aim at having long-lasting positive impacts in the centers, schools, and communities we serve.
MCES provides educational and enrichment assistance for many schools and community centers. We help to provide curriculum that is uniquely designed for each center’s need and teacher/tutor training. Children are especially vulnerable to food insecurity and beneficial endeavors during the afterschool hours. MCES supports schools and community organizations develop sustainable programs that provide meals and extracurricular pursuits to children throughout the summer and schoolyear.
MCES engages youth by offering sports programs varying from basketball, volleyball, soccer, and more! This enables us to build connections with at-risk youth in our communities, who may not have safe spaces to build the confidence to support themselves. As the youth develop confidence and gain valuable life skills through our sports programs, they learn how to stay active, set goals, be confident, make healthy choices, act as community leaders, and succeed in life and beyond.