Food 4 Kids Continues To Grow

ORLEANS – Jenn Gale knew that this summer’s Food 4 Kids program was going to top the number of children served last year. She just didn’t realize by how much.

The program, which wrapped up its 13th summer in August, added six new locations for children to come and pick up meals. But Gale said the demand for food went well beyond what organizers anticipated.

“What started out as what I thought would be 80 more lunches, which I thought we could handle, turned into over 200 more lunches per day than we did last year,” she said.

Started on the Cape in 2013, Food 4 Kids serves free meals to children from Harwich to Provincetown as part of the state’s Summer EATS program. Summer EATS covers 47 percent of the local program’s annual budget, while the rest is secured through grants and private donations.

As the cost of food continues to put a strain on many local families, participation in Food 4 Kids continues to grow each summer. Gale, who just finished her second year as the program’s executive director, said that 55,974 meals were served across 22 sites over the course of this year’s 10-week program. That’s approximately 10,000 more meals than were served last year, she said.

The program accommodated that greater demand with the same number of volunteers and staff as last year, Gale said, noting that the program’s kitchen and prep space at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans can’t accommodate more workers than they already have. As a result, she estimated that volunteers each put in an additional 90 minutes per shift this summer. But everyone was up for the challenge.

“You’re gonna make it work,” she said. “The kids are here, they want lunch.”

As the program continues to grow, Gale said she needs to look at different ways to keep up with the escalating demand for summer meals. Ideally, that would include partnering with other organizations to set up new satellite locations to cook and prepare food.

Some church organizations have offered their help moving forward, Gale said. While she said getting a secondary site up and running in time for the 2026 season “feels like a stretch,” the work to plan for that possibility needs to start now.

“If we want to figure out how to serve more low-income households…we’re going to need to have some community partners,” she said.

This summer, Food 4 Kids partnered with the Nauset Public Schools, which allowed the program use of its hydroponics units. The units allowed the program to provide fresh lettuce and kale for sandwiches, she said.

“That went really well, so I think we’re going to expand on that next year,” Gale said.

Also new this summer, the program collaborated with Cape Kid Meals to provide 60 additional weekend meals for low-income families. The program also partnered with the Harwich Junior Players, Cape Cod Cooperative Extension and local author G Pa Rhymes to host live performances, cooking classes and literary events that were held at various program sites.

Gale said she is also looking at ways to help make the program more financially sustainable. The program purchases all of the food that it prepares and distributes, and Gale said she’ll explore the potential of buying goods at a discount from local merchants.

With her second year at the helm of the program behind her, Gale said she feels that the program is making headway in reaching the people in the community most in need of its services. While this year’s “crazy summer” wasn’t without its challenges, she said staff and volunteers remain buoyed by the mission at hand.

“It’s an amazing, supportive and positive community. Doing something that gives back to the local community is so fulfilling and fun.”