The city of Allentown and Allentown School District (ASD) are in partnership with local organizations to offer free meals to kids this Summer. According to the City of Allentown’s Communications Manager, Genesis Ortega, Breakfast and lunch will be offered to students of the school district this Summer alongside other programs and activities throughout the city.
“So, we offer breakfast and lunch to children. The program begins June 17 at the first meal site, and then our very last meal that we offer to kids is August 15,” Ortega said. “And the program is actually a partnership between the city of Allentown the Allentown School District. We partner with several organizations like St Luke's University Health Network, and Lehigh Valley hospital.”
Locations offering community meals this summer include St. Luke’s at Star Community Health, Lehigh Valley Hospital School of Nursing, Allentown Public Library, The Caring Place, Mack Pool, and Casa Guadalupe. No registration is required. ASD Meal Sites are South Mountain Middle School and Trexler Middle School. The meals must be eaten on-site, but no registration is required.
“We've offered this program in partnership with the downtown school district now for a few years.” Ortega noted. “We've partnered with several local organizations to prepare meal sites over the summer so that no child goes hungry.”
“So, when we talk about these programs that are provided by the city of Allentown, they undoubtedly have the mayor's full support in making it happen,” Ortega said. “And so, this particular program with the Allentown Summer Meals Program is coordinated by the Allentown Health Bureau, which the mayor oversees.”
The Allentown School District will also offer summer programs to provide academic support and enrichment opportunities for students to prepare them for the 2025-2026 school year. Interested families should contact the school or their teacher to enroll.
“They offer comprehensive summer programming to ensure that there's essential academic support and enrichment opportunities for students, making sure that they feel confident as they prepare for the next school year. If families would like to find out more information, they can contact their child's school or their teacher to enroll and find out more about what those resources look like,” Ortega noted.
“This summer for the 111th year, now we have a summer playground program. It's geared for kids ages seven to 15, and the program runs from June 16 through August 7. And basically, parents can sign up their kids as a summer camp program. They'll be able to go Monday through Friday. They get a meal each day, they get to do really fun activities. We'll take them some days to Dorney park or a city pool. We've done really cool partnerships with organizations within Allentown so that the kids can have a fun summer, but also learn and be able to basically, like have fun with like, colleagues and peers in Allentown parks,” Ortega noted.
A full list of free meal sites in Allentown and across the country can be found at https://www.fns.usda.gov/meals4kids.
Residents can also text “Summer Meals” to 914-342-7744 or call 1-866-348-6479 to find a summer site in their community.
“It's a program that we are excited to offer year after year to our residents,” Ortega said. “If there are people listening who do live outside of the city of Allentown, there is most likely a meal site that serves our community as well. So, we also encourage people to text summer meals to 914-342-7744, to find a summer site in your community.”
