Summer Feeding

Updated: Jun 4

We are offering free meals to children from 1-18 years of age again this summer. Please check out the flyer for locations and times. Picnic in the Park is happening again at ICCU Park--please look at the menu for dates and presenters!

Please keep in mind, no matter if a site is flexible or traditional, we may only serve 1 meal to each child per meal service (breakfast, lunch). If you come to multiple sites and pickup multiple meals, you are risking us losing our program and our ability to feed any children. Please remember to be honest and only get one meal per child per meal service!

We have two types of sites this summer -- traditional and flexible. Please read on to understand the differences.

Traditional Meal Service

Children must sit and consume the meal on site. They may only take the item listed on the sign in the cafeteria with them when they leave the site. The sites are open to the public, so even if a child is not enrolled at summer school, the child can go and consume a meal on site at a summer school site.

Flexible Meal Service

These sites fall under the new "Rural Non-Congregate" regulations by the USDA. These flexible sites require participants to sign in on a roster to ensure only one meal per child is picked up and if a parent or guardian is picking up for their children, they also have to sign an attestation letter.

What does it mean to be a flexible site?

Children can go to a flexible site and receive a meal and then take that meal back home to eat it, if desired.
Parents and guardians may come by the site and pick up meals to take to their children.
At Heritage Academy's site, we are open only during lunch, however, we will offer a child the next day's breakfast to take with them when we serve them their lunch.

What about the weekends?

We are only operating Monday - Thursday, but thanks to the new flexibilities offered by the USDA this year, on Thursdays we offer multi-day meal pickups. This program is starting June 6th and going through August 1st. The exception is 4th of July week - we will offer the pickup on Wednesday, July 3rd.

By Tuesday of each week, parents/guardians need to pre-register. Since this is a new program, we have no idea what demand will be, so we need that pre-registration to know how many meals to bring to the site. A new form will need to be completed for each week to pick up meals via our online form.

When you come to pick up, it's at our Heritage School site, 500 S Lincoln, Jerome, ID 83338; south side of the school by the picnic tables. As with other sites, a child may sign the roster and pick up their own meals, but not meals for other children. To pick up for multiple children, a parent or guardian has to come to pick up, complete the parent/guardian attestation, and sign the roster.

As much as possible, we serve shelf-stable items. All food safety and preparation instructions will be included in the pickup bag.

What does "mobile" mean?

We are getting in our food service van and bringing food to more sites! We pull up and set up at each mobile site for a window of time (see the flyer for times). Mobile sites are flexible service sites--we offer child meals, parent meal pick up, and adult meal purchase. Please come and check it out!

If you have any questions, please call the Child Nutrition office at 208-324-5311. We look forward to seeing you at one of our sites this summer!