Mary Nelson's Youth Center keeps summer food program running without state support

Children at Mary Nelson’s Youth Center are still getting summer meals on Syracuse’s south side, even after the state cut the center out of the free meal program. The loss followed a day last summer when the air conditioning broke, the indoor temperature reached 107 degrees and staff sent breakfast and lunch home with children instead of serving them inside. Syracuse hit 96 degrees at Hancock International Airport on July 2 and broke a 95-year-old temperature record.

The Summer Food Service Program is a federal USDA program that gives free meals and snacks to children 18 and under at schools, parks and other approved neighborhood sites. In New York, the state Education Department administers the program. Sponsors must be approved to operate it. The department also has waiver authority for excessive heat, which can allow non-congregate meal service at outdoor sites without a temperature-controlled backup, but only for sponsors in good standing that seek approval.

The center has worked with the Syracuse City School District on summer meals for at least four to eight years, and the district has long depended on a network of neighborhood sites to reach children when school cafeterias are closed. In 2025, the district’s summer meal sites opened July 7 and stretched across about three dozen park, school and community locations citywide. WAER put the figure at more than 170,000 meals the prior summer.

At Mary Nelson’s, the meals had been served at 9 a.m. for breakfast and 11 a.m. for lunch before the air-conditioning failure forced staff to change operations. The center is now continuing without state help.