Summer meal program keeps kids fed as grocery costs rise

Evgenia Anastasakos, Chicago Tribune on Jul 29, 2026

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CHICAGO -- Children lined up in the gymnasium at Holy Family School in the North Lawndale neighborhood Monday morning, eager to tear into milk cartons and grab breakfast before another day of summer camp.

Among them were cousins Calia Brown and Alonnah Muhammad, both age 11, who are preparing to enter sixth grade. Over bananas and waffle crackers, they talked about the school year ahead. Brown is looking forward to learning about new subjects, while Muhammad is excited to get to meet her teachers and make new friends.

They’ve spent the summer at Holy Family, taking field trips, watching movies and participating in the camp’s free breakfast and lunch program.

“The meals are very different, but they’re very yummy,” Brown said. “They’re actually very healthy and tasty.”

One of her favorite lunches included a cup of mango and apple sauce. Muhammad said she likes the waffles and bagels.

“For some people, it’s varieties of food they haven’t tried before,” Brown said.

Holy Family is one of 115 summer feeding programs across Cook County supplied by the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which provides free meals and snacks to children during the summer months. Sites are located in schools, parks, community centers, libraries, camps, apartment complexes and churches.

“Summer can be a really challenging time for the kids, when they lose access to the free breakfast and lunch that they get at school,” said Camerin Mattson, communications manager at the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Mattson said food insecurity can contribute to a “summer slide” — the loss of academic skills over summer break — for children, widening the achievement gap.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository has been particularly busy since President Donald Trump signed his “Big Beautiful Bill” last year. Mattson said the organization has been preparing for rising numbers of guests at partner food pantries, soup kitchens and other programs.

New federal and state Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) rules have restricted eligibility for immigrants and removed exceptions on work requirements for families with older children. States with error rates above 6%, including Illinois, are also set to lose partial federal SNAP funding in the coming years. Illinois will shoulder an estimated $550 million of the annual cost, according to an analysis released this month by fiscal watchdog group the Civic Federation.

These SNAP rollbacks come as consumers face skyrocketing costs for items like milk and ground beef. Energy costs are also surging, with electric prices in Illinois reaching historic highs.

“We all know that the cost of groceries is high, the cost of living is high and so it’s an unfortunate time for people to be losing those benefits,” Mattson said.

The abrupt closure of seven Save A Lot discount grocery stores across the city’s South and West sides has also made it even harder for some local families to stretch their food budgets. The closures, announced earlier this month, are partly due to SNAP cuts, which led to a decline in sales, according to a spokesperson for the grocery chain.

The Chicago Food Depository is helping families navigate Illinois’ Summer EBT program, Mattson said. Through the program, eligible households can receive a one-time food benefit of $120 per school-age child for groceries during the summer break, to offset the loss of school meals.

“It’s important that kids have breakfast and lunch because they need something to function during the day,” Holy Family summer food service manager Johnnie Dossie said as she passed out boxes of fruit and waffle crackers.

The menu varies throughout the summer, but some items disappear faster than others. Apple sauce and roast beef sandwiches — which Dossie said the children are “really crazy about” — are among the most popular. If food is left over, staff encourage children to take it home.

This summer, the program served close to 80 children, Dossie said. For busy families, the meals can make a meaningful difference.

“Some parents kind of depend on us,” she said.