MSCS, YMCA to provide free meals for kids this summer

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — MSCS and the YMCA have free summer meal options for kids under 18.

Some students in the Mid-South rely on their schools to get a hot meal every day. But with schools out for the summer, families do not have that option.

In 2024, Tennessee joined the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT). This made about 700,000 Tennessee families eligible to receive $40 per month per child during the summer up. In 2025, Tennessee opted out of the program.

This summer, the YMCA’s West Tennessee Senior Vice President, Dave Bratcher, said they saw they need to continue expanding their Summer Food Program for kids that started in 2023.

“In 2022 we had zero sites. We added 4 sites in 2023, 12 sites in 2024 and this summer we’re at 46 sites. In one day, through the collective work of the folks you see here and the folks out in the field, 36,000 meals were distributed,” said Bratcher.

The 46 meal pick up sites are spread around in Memphis, West Tennessee and North Mississippi. Meal packs with meals for seven days can be picked up on varying days of the week depending on the location. The meals are for kids under the age of 18.

“There’s some families that get excited about summer. There are other families that feel stress that summer is here because they don’t know how they’re going to take care of their kids and they don’t know where their next meal will come from.”

Memphis-Shelby County Schools is also stepping in to help fight food insecurity in Shelby County.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks are available at over 150 sites. Those meals must be eaten onsite during approved serving times, which vary by location.

Feeding America’s most recent Child Food Insecurity Data is from 2019 to 2023. Each year, food insecurity numbers increased in Shelby County during that time period. In 2023, 27.7% of Shelby County kids were food insecure. That’s above the national average of 14.3% in 2023.

Shelby County child food insecurity numbers are also higher than the next two largest Tennessee counties. In Davidson County, child insecurity was 19.8% in 2023. It was 15.2% that same year.

Feeding America said some of the biggest contributing factors to food insecurity are poverty, unstable income and infrastructure.

For more information about the YMCA Summer Food Program, click here.

For more information on the MSCS Summer Meal Program, click here.