Serving Summer Meals During the COVID‐19 Pandemic: A Case Study of 2 Summer Food Service Program Sponsors in Maryland

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) provides free and nutritious meals to children under age 18 during out‐of‐school times. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, Maryland sponsors served over 9.5 million meals to children through an expanded version of the SFSP. This study aimed to explore and compare the factors that enabled 2 SFSP sponsors in Maryland to dramatically increase meals distribution during the pandemic. METHODS Sponsors were selected based on their responses in the larger study and demographic characteristics of the area in which they served. Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted over Zoom—4 interviews with Sponsor A (3 interviews with the sponsor, 1 interview with their vendor) and 1 interview with Sponsor B. Qualitative data were analyzed inductively and deductively. Participation data from 2019 and 2020 were obtained from the Maryland State Department of Education and analyzed. RESULTS Despite their differences in organization type and geographic region, they identified similar facilitators to their success—communication with the community and utilization of the United States Department of Agriculture‐issued waivers. CONCLUSIONS Strengthening community communication networks and permanently integrating more flexibility into regulation of the SFSP may increase meals participation during future out‐of‐school times.