For thousands of families across south central Wisconsin, the end of the school year doesn’t feel like a celebration—it feels like a strain.
Household budgets that are already stretched thin face new pressure overnight. Childcare costs rise to cover the hours once spent in classrooms, and grocery bills climb as the safety net of school meals disappears.
For many parents, summer brings an impossible question into sharper focus: how do you keep food on the table when the supports you rely on pause for three months?
During the school year, more than 68,000 children in southwestern Wisconsin depend on free and reduced-price school meals to help them succeed. But when the last bell rings, cafeterias close, and children’s access to consistent, nutritious meals suddenly becomes uncertain, what happens to that progress? For many students, the consequences extend beyond hunger and into the classroom.
Educators call it the “summer slide”—a well-documented decline in academic progress when school is out. While learning loss has many causes, hunger is one we can—and should—address. Children who lack consistent access to nutritious food are more likely to experience fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and higher rates of illness, and by the time they return to the classroom in the fall, the gap has widened.
This is not inevitable. It is preventable.
We know what works. When children have reliable access to nutritious meals over the summer, they return to school healthier, more focused, and ready to learn. But for households already making trade-offs between rent, utilities, and groceries, summer can push them from stability into crisis.
That’s why federal and state-supported programs like the Summer Food Service Program and Summer EBT exist—to provide resources that help reduce the trade-offs.
The challenge is making sure families can access them.
That is where we must act.
Schools, municipalities, and community partners must work together to ensure families know what is available and how to access it. Learn more about the Summer Food Service Program and Summer EBT, then share what you know within your networks.
As a community, we must continue to advocate for policies and vote for candidates that recognize food security as foundational—not optional—and certainly not seasonal.
