Add new comment

You are here

Field Trips: CDE Field Trips - 8/2/24: USDA official and CDE visit Summer Nutrition Meal site

USDA's Alberto Gonzalez visits the Lunch Lab, operated by the Food Bank for Larimer County, outside Loveland Public Library.

Two children walk away from a food truck carrying food boxes.

A small child with pregnant mother reaches up to a food truck for a box of food.

Group photo of USDA, CDE and food bank representatives in front of the Lunch Lab food truck.

UDSA official talking to two people outside the Lunch Lab food truck.

A child smiles in front of a food truck.

A man on a food truck adds a scoop of rice to a take away box.

A USDA official talks with a man in front of the Lunch Lab food truck.

USDA Food and Nutrition Service Chief Policy Advisor Alberto Gonzalez and CDE officials visited a Summer Nutrition Meals (SUN) Program site in Loveland operated by the Food Bank for Larimer County on Tuesday, July 30.

CDE has worked with 82 sponsors at 642 sites around the state to provide free and nutritious summer meals to children under age 18. The USDA and CDE provided multiple summer meal programs:

SUN Meals: Group summer meal service
SUN Meals To-Go: To-go or home-delivered meals in certain rural areas
SUN Bucks: Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer Program, or Summer EBT; summer grocery benefits ($120 per eligible school-aged child).

In 2023, the meals program expanded its “SUN Meals to Go” sites to more rural locations with 27 sponsors providing meals at 66 sites - more than double the sites from the year prior. This summer marked the SUN Bucks program's launch, reaching an estimated 550,000 eligible Colorado children.

CDE has more information about the Summer Food Service Program here.