Free summer meals available for Nye County children and teens

Free breakfasts and lunches are set to return for Nye County children and teens just as school cafeterias close for the summer. The county school district’s 2026 feeding schedule covers children ages 2 to 18 at no charge, with meals served first come, first served on Mondays and Thursdays from June 1 through July 16 at public sites including Floyd Elementary, Pahrump Valley High School, Manse Elementary and Rosemary Clarke Middle School.

For families in Pahrump and Amargosa Valley, the timing matters. During the school year, Nye County School District says it continues to provide one free breakfast and one free lunch each school day through the Community Eligibility Provision program, except at Duckwater and Warm Springs schools. When that routine ends, the summer program becomes a key public health backstop in a rural county where school meals are often the most dependable weekday food children receive.

Nevada’s Summer Food Service Program is the state’s single largest federally funded summer nutrition program, administered by the Nevada State Department of Agriculture’s Division of Food and Nutrition and funded by the United States Department of Agriculture. Under the program, children can receive up to two meals a day, or one meal and a snack, or two snacks. USDA says every child age 18 and under can get no-cost summer meals, and some rural communities also offer meal pick-up or delivery. Families can look up nearby sites, hours and contact information through the USDA Summer Meals for Kids Site Finder, or use Nevada’s meal locator at nvsummermeals.com, text “Summer Meals” to 914-342-7744, or call 1-866-348-6479.

The need is real. Nevada Department of Agriculture said more than 900,000 meals were served through the program last year, and Patricia Hoppe, the division administrator, said, “many Nevada students depend on school meals and for some it may be the only access to food they have.” In Nye County, that reality is sharpened by distance, limited transit and the challenge of getting children to a few concentrated sites in a sprawling rural area. Rosemary Clarke Middle School is listed as closed to the public through June 18 and open to the public starting June 22, adding another layer for families planning around the schedule.

For households trying to stretch food budgets, the summer meals program can work alongside SUN Bucks, the federal grocery benefit that provides $120 per eligible school-age child when school is out for summer. Together, the meal sites and grocery aid give families two ways to bridge the long break, but the reach of the program will still depend on whether rural children outside the easiest-to-access parts of Pahrump can get to the listed sites.