Summer Food Service Program Eligibility

Participant Eligibility

Children age 18 and under may receive meals through the Summer Food Service Program. A person 19 years of age and over who is determined by a state or local educational agency to have a mental or physical disability, and who participates during the school year in a public or private nonprofit school program established for the mentally or physically disabled, is also eligible to receive meals.

Sponsor Eligibility

Sponsors must be organizations that are fully capable of managing a food service program. To be a sponsor, you must follow regulations and be responsible, financially and administratively, for running your program.

The following types of organizations can be sponsors:

• Public or private nonprofit schools
• Units of local, municipal, county, tribal or state government
• Private nonprofit organizations
• Public or private nonprofit camps
• Public or private nonprofit universities or colleges

Site Eligibility

Eligible sites are those that serve children in low-income areas or those that serve specific groups of low-income children. Sponsors must provide documentation that proposed sites meet the income eligibility criteria required by law.

2021 Meal Reimbursement Rates