The EAT Café Summer Meals program was developed as a pilot in partnership between the Center for Hunger-Free Communities and Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry. This Test Kitchen project explores a potential model that could encourage restaurants to address hunger in their local communities by offering summer meals for children during non-business hours in their space. Throughout the country each summer, children who experience food insecurity year-round lose access to school meal programs and only one in four eligible students participates in current summer meal programs. 

The initial pilot will took place June 17 to August 22, 2019 by offering lunch time meals four days per week in the former EAT Café restaurant space located at 3820 Lancaster Ave. The Center partnered with Nutrional Development Services to provide ready-to-eat meals to children as part of the federally-funded, state-administered Summer Food Service Program, which reimburses providers who serve free healthy meals to children and teens in low-income areas during the summer months when school is not in session. 

The EAT Café served as one of more than a hundred sites throughout Philadelphia this summer. To find other sites in the Philadelphia community, visit phillysummermeals.org, call the toll-free Summer Meals Hotline at 855.252.MEAL or text "FOOD" or "MEALPA" to 877877.