Feeding Southwest Virginia announced results from its participation in the Summer Meals for Kids pilot with Amazon and No Kid Hungry, delivering 289,026 free meals directly to 3,325 children in Southwest Virginia between May and August of 2026.
“We’re incredibly grateful to Amazon and No Kid Hungry for selecting our Food Bank to participate in their home delivery service initiative,” says President and CEO of Feeding Southwest Virginia, Pamela Irvine. Irvine continues, “Too many children in our region face hunger. For the second year in a row, thanks to this partnership, Feeding Southwest Virginia could reach these young neighbors residing in especially rural counties.”
Feeding Southwest Virginia identified eligible families and prepared shelf-stable meal boxes, while Amazon donated the transportation and delivery through its rural delivery network — at no cost to families or partners. Feeding Southwest Virginia’s participation was part of a national pilot that delivered more than 2 million meals to families across 13 states through 18 food bank and school district partners.
Nearly 30 million children in the U.S. rely on free breakfast and lunch during the school year, but only about 1 in 7 eligible children access traditional on-site summer meal programs. For families in rural communities, long travel distances, sparsely located meal sites, limited and costly transportation, and schedule constraints for working parents and caregivers can make reaching a site nearly impossible. In some rural counties, child food insecurity rates approach 50 percent.
In Southwest Virginia, thousands of children rely on free school meals during the year, but few can reach traditional summer meal sites due to distance, transportation, or working parents.
In 2023, the USDA introduced flexible models for summer food distribution, allowing sponsors in eligible rural areas to provide meals for pickup or home delivery at no cost — a change that opened the door to this pilot program.
“At Amazon, we believe everyone should have reliable access to nutritious food,” said Jill Slabey, senior product manager for logistics for good at Amazon. “This summer, we used the same last-mile network that delivers packages every day to bring more than 2 million meals directly to doorsteps across the country — helping local partners reach more children in the communities they serve.”
“Families in rural communities have told us that getting to a traditional summer meal site can be a real challenge,” said Samantha King, senior manager of Innovation at No Kid Hungry. “Home delivery gives communities another way to reach kids during the summer, and this pilot is helping us build a model that is practical for local partners and centered on what families need.”
