Berea Kids Eat offers free, healthy summer meals to community youths

June 25, 2025

BEREA, Ky. – Berea Kids Eat, a program facilitated by Grow Appalachia, is offering families multiple opportunities this summer to obtain free, healthy meals for their school-aged children. 

The program offers mobile routes with parent pickup locations as well as on-site programming at locations around Berea. 

“Throughout the school year, students eat meals at their school, but during the summer, some families struggle with providing those healthy meals for their kids,” said Candace Mullins, director of Grow Appalachia. “We want these kids to have the same access to meals that they do during the school year. That’s why we are expanding our reach and offering more opportunities for Berea families to access meals.”

“It feels so important for Berea to have a program like Berea Kids Eat,” said Lara Armstrong, nutrition programs coordinator with Berea Kids Eat. “We try to offer a safe educational space for youth and families to play and learn about their local food systems, while delivering high quality meals to help meet the summer meal gap for our local community.”

From noon to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, Berea Kids Eat offers hot meals from a food truck or other local restaurant partner at their Outdoor Education Garden behind Glades Christian Church (530 Glades Rd.) Programming is also provided for school-aged children. On Fridays, meals are available from 1-3 p.m. at the Berea College Farm Store, located at 311 North Main Street in Berea. 

A local food vendor will also operate at the Levitt Amp Concert Series with First Friday Berea. Dates for these events will be posted on the Berea Kids Eat Facebook page when they become available. 

To participate in parent/guardian pickup, signup is required for the mobile routes. 

In addition to free summer meals, Berea Kids Eat offers outreach and programming at the Glades Garden, a Grow Appalachia-stewarded activation space for youth and families to learn hands-on skills focused on growing, cooking and preserving food. 

Berea Kids Eat also collaborates strategically with national and local partners to support food security and wellness in Berea with regional impact. 

“Everyone should have access to healthy food, and that’s what Grow Appalachia is all about,” Mullins said. “Whether it be learning how to grow and store your own food, mitigate weather damage to crops, or simply offering meals to school-aged children, we are doing everything we can to help close the gap between needs and access. That’s our purpose, and we are extremely thankful for the many grants and private donors – including the U.S. Department of Agriculture – that help us make this work possible.”