What It Took to Keep Children Nourished All Summer Long
By late July, summer has developed its own familiar rhythm. Mornings begin at camps and community centers. Backpacks carry water bottles instead of homework. Children settle into days shaped by games, field trips, new friendships, and the occasional afternoon that seems to stretch on forever.
In our kitchens, summer has a rhythm of its own. Each morning, our team prepares breakfasts, lunches, and snacks for children across Middle Tennessee through Sweet Peas: Summer Eats for Kids. Meals are packed, counted, and sent out to the community organizations where young people are spending their days.
Summer offers children a welcome break from school, but hunger does not follow the academic calendar. When classrooms close, many families lose access to the dependable meals their children receive during the school year. Sweet Peas helps keep nourishing food within reach until those familiar school-day routines return.
Thanks in part to the support of our longtime partner Jackson Financial, Inc., we were able to provide nourishing meals to children across Middle Tennessee throughout the summer.
This summer, we shared meals through Aventura Community School; Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee’s Franklin Clubhouse; Bridging the Gap Learning Center; Cottage Cove; Firm in Totality; Harvest Hands at Napier; Meharry DNA Learning Center; Nashville International Center for Empowerment; Project Transformation sites in Antioch, Madison, Murfreesboro, and Smyrna; UrbanPromise; and Water Walkers.
At some sites, the day began with breakfast. At others, lunch offered a welcome pause between activities. An afternoon snack might be eaten quickly before everyone returned to the gym, the playground, or the next project. The meals were different from site to site, but the purpose remained the same: to make sure children had the nourishment they needed to take part fully in their summer days.
During one week in July, our team prepared 815 breakfasts for children at Bridging the Gap Learning Center, Cottage Cove, Firm in Totality, Nashville International Center for Empowerment, and Water Walkers. We also prepared 815 snacks for children at Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee’s Franklin Clubhouse, Harvest Hands at Napier, and UrbanPromise, in addition to lunches shared across our wider network of summer partners.
The numbers tell us how much food left our kitchens. They cannot tell us everything that happened after it arrived.
They do not show the child eating breakfast before a morning of learning, the friends talking over lunch, or the caregiver who had one less meal to plan that day. They cannot capture the comfort of being offered food in a place where you already know the people and feel at home.
That is why our community partners matter so much. They know the children and families who walk through their doors. They have built trust through the steady work of showing up, season after season. By sharing meals through these familiar spaces, we can meet children where they already are.
At the Franklin Clubhouse, for example, meals became part of days filled with games, learning, and time with friends and caring adults. Our relationship with Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee continues after summer ends, with community meals shared throughout the year at its Fairview Clubhouse.
This is the quiet strength of partnership. No single organization has to do everything. Each brings what it knows, the relationships it has built, and the care it can offer. Together, we create something more dependable for children and families.
Now, as summer programs wind down and school-year routines return, we are thinking about all the hands that carried these meals from our kitchens to tables across the region. We are grateful for every partner who opened its doors, every staff member who welcomed children, and every person who helped make sure food was there when it was needed.
Summer is coming to an end. The relationships that sustained this work are not.
