Wake County expands free summer meals to 14 sites

Wake County expanded its free summer meals network with four new Raleigh sites and its first hybrid location in Wendell, bringing the countywide total to 14. The changes are aimed at making it easier for families to keep children fed when school breakfast and lunch disappear for the summer, especially households that have trouble with transportation or childcare.

The new Raleigh sites are Peach Road Cultural Center, Raleigh Church of Christ, Redeeming Love Missionary Baptist Church and Sherrill’s University of Cosmetology. At Wendell Parks and Recreation, the county opened its first hybrid SUN Meals site in Wake County history, giving families both on-site meals and weekend food to carry home.

Under the program, children and teens age 18 and younger can receive free meals with no identification, registration or application required. Wake County said the 2026 Summer Meals program ran from June 15 through August 16, and county officials urged families to check schedules before traveling because hours can change by site.

The Wendell site added a wrinkle designed for working parents and caregivers: it served meals on Tuesdays and Fridays, and on Fridays it also handed out take-home weekend meal bags with two breakfasts and two lunches for children to eat over the weekend. The county said some sites also offered enrichment activities, giving children a place to eat, gather and stay active.

Wake County’s food-security data show why the expansion mattered. County records list 126,110 residents, or 11.1% of the population, as food insecure, including 33,550 children. Wake County also says nearly 1 in 5 children in North Carolina live in food-insecure households, a reminder that the summer gap can strain budgets that already depend on school meals during the academic year.

The effort sits within the USDA Summer Food Service Program, which Wake County describes as federally funded and intended to provide free meals to children ages 0 to 18 when school is not in session. USDA says every child 18 and under can get SUN Meals at no cost, and some rural communities also offer SUN Meals To-Go.

Families looking for meal sites can use USDA’s summer meals site finder or text FOOD or COMIDA to 304-304. Wake County has said its food-security work is focused on affordable, nutritious and culturally relevant food, and the growth from 16 summer sites in 2024 to 20 open-enrollment sites serving more than 170,000 meals in 2023 shows how heavily families have relied on the program.