A program providing meals to children in West Tennessee during summer months is on track to deliver roughly double the number of meals it distributed last year.
The Southwest Human Resource Agency’s Summer Nutrition Program provides boxes stocked with seven days of breakfast and lunch for children under the age of 18 in about 20 counties. The service starts in May and ends a week before school begins, typically in August. The program is funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service and the Tennessee Department of Human Services.
In the program’s first five weeks this year, the agency distributed roughly 630,000 meals — equivalent to the total for the entire summer in 2025.
Director of Food Services Solutions Tony Torres said the program is serving Obion, Weakley, Tipton and Crockett counties for the first time this year. Boxes are distributed at “grab-and-go” sites within each county, and the program offers home delivery in some counties.
“Home delivery was something that I was really passionate about … I knew that every family that signed up, those children were going to get food every week,” Torres said, explaining that timing and transportation can sometimes be an issue for families.