The goal of the FEED 1st Summer Feeding Program is to provide healthy meals to hungry children during the summer. When school is out and students no longer have access to meals provided by their school, our summer feeding program kicks into gear. From the last day of school to the first day of school in the fall, we pick up where the schools leave off by providing a healthy breakfast and lunch.
Our Scholars program is an essay driven scholarship that focuses on service to others. We pay for all school books for the school year in addition to providing a summer job and other incentive's including leadership development. College students that return to work in our Summer Feeding program can qualify.
Our literacy program was initiated through providing innovative academic enrichment programs for disadvantaged low income youths, and ESL student populations. With our "Feed The Mind Literacy Initiative" we provide free books to our students. For many it is the only book they own. We are focused on increasing their interest and ability in reading. In partnership with First Book and other volunteer organizations that donate books, we distribute free books to the children in the communities we serve.
During summer vacation, many students lose knowledge and skills. By the end of summer, students perform, on average, one month behind where they left off in the spring. Of course, not all students experience "average" losses. Summer learning loss disproportionately affects low-income students. While all students lose some ground in mathematics over the summer, low-income students lose more ground in reading, while their higher-income peers may even gain. Most disturbing is that summer learning loss is cumulative and over time, the difference between the summer learning rates of low-income and higher-income students contributes to an ever widening gap.
