Perham schools, Boys & Girls Club offer free summer meals for kids

Perham Public Schools and the Boys & Girls Club will serve free summer meals for children in Perham starting June 1, giving families a way to cover breakfast and lunch while school is out and food costs keep climbing.

At Prairie Wind Middle School, 480 Coney St. W., the district’s Summer Food Service Program will run through Aug. 7 and serve meals Monday through Thursday. Breakfast will be offered only during June, from 7:45 to 9 a.m., and lunch will be served from 10:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. The program is part of the federal Summer Food Service Program, which Minnesota says is designed to fill the nutrition gap during the summer months.

The Boys & Girls Club in Perham, 221 Fox St., will also serve meals to enrolled students from June 1 through Aug. 8. There, breakfast will be available Monday through Friday from 8 to 9:30 a.m., and lunch will be served Friday only from 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. For families juggling work schedules, child care and higher grocery bills, the two sites create a local option for keeping kids fed without adding another expense to the household budget.

The timing matters for more than convenience. Minnesota officials say the Summer Food Service Program helps children get nutritious meals when school is out, and the state is also rolling out SUN Bucks for 2026. The income-based benefit provides $120 per eligible school-aged child to buy groceries during the summer and is expected to reduce food insecurity for more than 450,000 Minnesota children.

Families looking for nearby meal sites can also use the Free Meals for Kids app, call 211, contact the Minnesota Food HelpLine or sign up for USDA text alerts. In Perham, the district listed Krystal Boyd, its food service director, as the contact for more information at kboyd@perham.k12.mn.us.

Perham Schools has said it operated a Summer Food Service Program for many years before skipping the program in 2022 because the district no longer qualified as a site. Its return this summer brings the meals back to a familiar place for Otter Tail County families, with a clear schedule and two local locations where kids can eat without cost.