Every Meal’s Weekend Meal Program ensures that kids in Minnesota don’t go hungry. Monday through Friday, kids can rely on school meals. What about Saturday and Sunday? Every Meal fills that gap. It began with a simple but urgent request from school staff at a Northeast Minneapolis school:
“My students don’t have food on the weekends – can you help?”
Our answer became our Weekend Meal Program.
Why Weekend Meals Matter
Over 300,00 Minnesota children live with food insecurity. Without consistent access to enough good food, hunger on the weekends is very real. Every Meal is changing that by providing weekend food bags directly in students’ backpacks.
Hunger affects more than just health. Beyond increased illness and developmental delays, kids can have poor academic performance, behavioral challenges, and difficulty adapting socially and emotionally. But consistent access to nourishing food can change their trajectory. When kids receive weekend food support, they’re better able to learn, grow, and thrive.
Providing Good Food Directly to Kids
Every week during the school year, students in Pre-K through 8th grade in our network of school partners throughout Minnesota leave school with 4-5 pound bags filled with nutritious, delicious, and relevant food. On Fridays, volunteers discreetly place tailored food bags directly in students’ backpacks, giving them the assurance they’ll have food to fuel them through the weekend and have a good start on Monday.
Our program is designed to make it easy and accessible for children to receive weekend food support. We’re breaking food access barriers by:
- Offering the program free to all families
- Having no qualification requirements
- Not collecting contact information
- Giving families the option to select food bags tailored to various cultural, dietary, and situational needs and preferences
- Allowing families to enroll at any time throughout the school year
- Distributing food bags discreetly while kids are in class
Minnesota Community in Action
Our community partners – known as Sponsors – are essential to making the Weekend Meal Program possible. Sponsors are local organizations, including businesses, churches, and other faith communities that support schools in their area by donating towards the cost of the program and volunteering weekly to distribute food bags to kids.
Join Us in Fighting Child Hunger Today
Our Weekend Meal Program is also powered by donations from community members like you! We receive almost no government funding, making us nearly 100% community-funded. As a donor, you help provide weekend food support for Minnesota children experiencing food insecurity that government programs don’t currently cover.
Will you be the reason a child eats on the weekend?
Your gift allows us to create a variety of food bag menus that kids enjoy eating. We purchase over 96% of our food in bulk from reputable food banks, wholesalers, and manufacturers, allowing us meet our good food criteria and nutritional guidelines.
