How it works

• Financial sponsors purchase food from vendors and process reimbursements from the state agency; in many cases they also serve as meal distribution sites

• Community sponsors can provide meals after school (CACFP) and during the summer (SFSP)

• As a financial sponsor, you will purchase food from local vendors, who will distribute the food to the meal sites you sponsor

• Every week you will report the number of meals served at every site to your state agency (DESE in MA), who will reimburse you for the meals served at the federal reimbursement rates

• In addition to sponsoring meal sites in your own facilities, you can sponsor meal sites at any place in the community where children gather (e.g. partner orgs, parks, community centers)

What meals are included?

• Summer: breakfast & lunch

• After school: snack & supper

• School year: breakfast & lunch (only schools / districts can sponsor school breakfast and lunch)

How much does it cost?

• You will be reimbursed at the USDA set rates for every meal: about $2.55 for breakfast, $4.48 for lunch (varies slightly by program - read more)

• As a sponsor, you can keep a small portion of this to support administrative costs

What are the requirements?

• The program is open to any nonprofit organization that is interested in serving meals

• As a sponsor, your are responsible for making sure the menus being served meet the USDA meal standards, and for documenting the number of meals served at each site

How do we get started?

• If you are new to USDA programs you will need to apply to be a sponsor through your state agency (in MA this is DESE)

  For information on how to become a Massachusetts Local Lunchbox sponsor email hello@LocalLunchbox.org