Updates
Summer Hunger for Children: The Facts and Impacts
July 31, 2026
Published by: Nora Thomas
School’s out, but summer can be one of the hungriest times for kids. Without schools providing low- or no-cost meals, food access can become much more difficult for families. During summer break, parents manage full-time childcare and budgeting to replace those provided meals. But kids shouldn’t have to worry about having enough to eat—in school or not!
Hunger isn’t just a temporary discomfort. The impacts of chronic food insecurity, especially during childhood development, can last a lifetime. We must understand the consequences of food insecurity and strengthen safety nets to ensure kids have enough to eat.
Hunger in our Community
In Denver, 1 in 3 adults reported cutting or skipping meals in 2025, according to the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment Food Insecurity Survey Report. In households with children, parents are often forced to skip meals to make sure their children have enough to eat. Still, 17% of households in Colorado report that their children are not eating enough because of unaffordability.
While there are state and federal programs in place to help, food insecurity is often a result of complex life circumstances. Gaps in these programs can inhibit adequate food access. Approximately 48% of food-insecure families did not qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Even when they do qualify, the average SNAP benefits in Colorado include $1.98 per person per meal. With increasing average costs of groceries over the last several years, it is difficult to provide for a family on that budget. Understanding the areas where SNAP falls short illustrates how absolutely essential it is for kids to receive food access in other ways, like at school.
Expanding Food Access for Kids
In 2022, Colorado voters passed the Healthy School Meals for ALL (HSMA) act, securing funding for all students at participating schools. This legislation reduces the administrative burden for parents and schools to verify income qualification and reduces stigma surrounding food assistance. But this wasn’t always the case, and this program certainly isn’t the standard across the country.
Before Colorado offered HSMA, 45% of students (aged K-12) in Colorado qualified for free and reduced lunch. Considering American families must be 130-185% below the federal poverty level to qualify, the need for stronger food access systems is clear. Without free school meals, it is estimated that parents with two school-age children would have to spend an additional $1,890 to $2,214 per year on school-bought or packed meals. Additionally, school meals must meet rigorous nutrition standards. For families facing food insecurity, the cheapest or most accessible options are often highly-processed foods with low nutrient content. When children can access free school meals, they can keep their bellies full and ensure proper nutrition standards are met.
What happens when kids don’t get enough to eat?
When kids don’t get enough to eat, it’s not just temporary discomfort. Chronic hunger during childhood creates long-term impacts on emotional wellbeing, physical health, and neurological development. And the consequences are greater the earlier in childhood that hunger is experienced.
We can think about the impacts from childhood hunger coming from two pathways. Nutritionally, low vitamin and protein consumption can lead to impaired neurological development because the brain doesn’t have the building blocks necessary to grow. At the same time, food insecurity can create intense stress for families, which children can absorb. Stress can impact all aspects of a child’s wellbeing, especially their cognition and social performance.
Developmentally, children facing food insecurity tend to perform poorer than their peers in school. Food insecurity is linked to difficulty concentrating, lower cognitive skills in math and reading, limited improvement in skills over a school year, challenges with language comprehension, challenges with direction following, and inhibited social skill development.
Emotionally, children facing hunger observe increased aggression, irritability, sleep disturbances, mood swings, insecure attachment, and even delinquency. Children with food insecurity are also 50% more likely than their peers to develop anxiety and depression.
Healthwise, childhood hunger is linked to a myriad of health conditions, whether from poor nutrition or undue stress. Food insecurity weakens immunity, and children are at a 2x greater risk for fair or poor health during childhood. Childhood hunger is linked to anemia, rickets, cancer, stroke, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, osteoporosis, asthma, and stunted growth. Moreover, food insecurity in childhood can lead to obesity and/or disordered eating.
Additionally, kids experiencing food insecurity are more likely to experience the “summer slide”. This is a phenomenon where, over the summer break, kids forget what they learned the previous year. This puts them even further behind academically.
Of course, these outcomes are not destined for all children facing food insecurity. However, it is essential to acknowledge the potential lasting impacts of childhood hunger to inform comprehensive policy, action, and community support.
Our children are the future of our society, and we owe it to our communities to nourish and support the next generation.
The Ups and Downs of Food Policy
In Colorado, Healthy School Meals for All is a lifeline for our families. But in summer, the gaps become clearer.
Free and Reduced Meals are federally funded, securing minimum food access for families more than 130% and 185% below the poverty line, respectively. This is a huge help, but so many more families above that level are also struggling. What’s even more striking is that even with strict qualifications and barriers to participation, 50% of ALL students in the US qualified. To put this into context, this means, in 2026, a family of 4 would need to earn less than $61,050 annually to receive reduced lunch, and $42,900 annually for free lunch.
Many schools are expanding food access further. Nine states, including Colorado, have passed universal free school meal programs. Many other schools work towards this in a different way, through a policy called Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). Through this method, students can directly qualify for free school meals if they are enrolled in SNAP or Medicaid. Then, if 25% of a school’s students are directly certified, the school is eligible for CEP and can offer free school meals for all. In the 2024-25 school year, 55,362 schools across the U.S. participated in CEP. Universal free school meals and CEP reduce administrative burden for both schools and parents and reduce the stigma of food assistance in school.
It is abundantly clear that resources like universal school meals and SNAP are essential. Kids need full bellies to succeed, and our neighbors are struggling. This summer, let’s work together to close the gap and protect food access for kids.
Take Action to Secure Food Access
- Support We Don’t Waste! We are working to improve food access by providing quality, rescued food to our neighbors through no-cost mobile food markets across Denver’s neighborhoods. Set up monthly giving to further your impact and keep kids fed all year long!
- Reach out to your representatives! Use the FRAC action network to easily urge your representatives to restore the SNAP budget, cosponsor the Universal School Meals Program Act, and more!
- Share food resources! You never know who may need extra help this summer.
- Use https://kidsfoodfinder.org/ to find locations serving free meals with the Summer Food Service Program. No application/proof of income required. Ages 18 and under can access free meals; adults can purchase breakfast at $3.00 and lunch at $4.00.
- Colorado’s Summer EBT program gives families a one-time grocery benefit of $120 per eligible child. Most eligible children are pre-enrolled, but some may need to apply. Check here to see if your child is enrolled!
- Denver’s Tasty Food program has even more sites providing food for youth (ages 3-18) all year long. No registration required.
- We Don’t Waste’s Mobile Food Markets are feeding families all year long. See the schedule and register on the Plentiful App. No income verification required.