After students go home for the summer break, most school districts will keep working through the season to feed San Antonio’s children.
Several Bexar County school districts, charter networks and nonprofits like the San Antonio Food Bank are participating in the federal Seamless Summer Nutrition Program.
Through the program, any child 18 and younger can access breakfast and lunch at no cost at any location offering summer meals. Students between the ages of 18 and 21 who are still enrolled in a school district with learning disabilities can also participate.
Unlike most food programs, summer meals don’t require registration, identification or income verification.
“Just show up and enjoy a meal,” said Monica Faulkenbery, a spokesperson for Northside Independent School District. The district is offering summer meals at 26 campus sites this year.
San Antonio ISD is offering meals at 25 school campuses and North East ISD is offering meals at around 40 schools, public libraries, athletic buildings and school bus stops.
Federally funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, school districts are required by law to host summer meal programs if they have large populations of students who qualify for free lunch.
In Texas, 1 in 5 children experience hunger according to the nonprofit Feeding Texas, a state network of food banks. And children in the San Antonio area are disproportionately affected.
According to the San Antonio Food Bank, 1 in 4 children in Bexar County don’t know where their next meal will come from.
Often reliant on school nutrition programs for free and reduced cost meals throughout the year, school breaks put an added stress on families who may already be struggling.
Putting food on the table could soon be even harder for families in San Antonio who rely on SNAP benefits, as new rules and criteria from the state and President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” start to take effect.
Passed last year, the “Big Beautiful Bill” will reduce SNAP funding by $186 billion in the next 10 years, the largest cut to SNAP in history, while imposing stricter work requirements and shifting more administrative costs of running the program to the states.
SNAP advocates expect these changes will result in millions of people losing access.
At the state level, Texas recently implemented significant purchasing restrictions on the kinds of foods SNAP recipients can buy using their benefits.
Despite pushes from state lawmakers and hunger advocates, Texas is also one of few states that hasn’t opted into Summer EBT, which offers low-income families $120 per eligible child to spend on food during the summer break.
Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the item last year, citing uncertainty over federal funding returns for running the program. Only a few months before the summer break, advocates attempted a last-minute push to fund the item in January.
State lawmakers are expected to take the issue up again during the next state legislative session in 2027.
Summer EBT would help more families than the school sponsored summer meals program. No Kid Hungry Texas estimates that only 170,000 children are served through school summer meal programs statewide, while Summer EBT could help 3.75 million children.
In Bexar County alone, more than 230,000 students would be eligible for Summer EBT.
The Seamless Summer Nutrition Program doesn’t require any applications or paperwork, but the program is limited by location, dates and hours, which could make it inaccessible for families with long working hours or unreliable transportation.
Families planning to take their children to summer meal programs should check hours and dates with the school district or program sponsor first.
The Texas Department of Agriculture also has a site locater map to find available summer meal locations, and families can call 211 to speak with an operator.
Summer meals run from May 26 until the last week of July, and are usually offered Monday through Friday.
This story first appeared in the San Antonio Report.