Homeless Students: What About Summer Break?

Editor’s Note: This is part of a special report that looks at the growing number of homeless students in the Sumner School District. Click for our main report. We also looked at the psychological impacts of homelessness on children. You can read that report . Patch partnered with InvestigateWest for this report. The names of the family profiled in this story are pseudonyms to protect their privacy.

For Shelby and her two little sisters, the idea of summer break brings one emotion to mind: boredom.

The girls, who qualify as homeless students in the , groan when asked what they'll do with two months away from recess with their friends, the consistency of school, and free breakfast and lunch.

"Nothing," replied Shelby. "We can't go nowhere."

“McKinney-Vento is a school-year program,” said Ann Cook, director of communications for the Sumner School District, referring to the federal law that provides money for homeless shelter programs and ensures homeless children get transportation to their original schools. “According to federal law, ‘homeless’ students do not exist in the summer.”

During the school year, the Sumner School District coordinates pickup and transportation times with kids who qualify for services under McKinney-Vento. The program preserves the right for students to get to school on time and the district respects their right to participate in extra-curricular activities by working around a normal student-life schedule. But once summer break begins, those activities often cease until September.

The most critical activity kids will miss during the summer? The free and reduced lunch program, which, for some kids, is all the food they will eat in a day.

To offset the deficiency, the is open year-round with family activities, counseling sessions and continued resources. Visit its website here for more information.

The will still have backpacks full of food available for local kids to pick up every Friday, between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Food bank staff will fill the backpacks with four days worth of goods, such as hydrated milk or single-packaged Capri Sun drinks, crackers, snack chips and fruit cups. They’ll also include instant ramen and any other prepared canned goods. 

Anyone interested in donating to the food banks, specifically to the backpack program, is asked to choose canned goods with lids that don't need a can opener, prepackaged snacks and beverages, or anything prepackaged that involves minimal preparation. Also, Sumner Food Bank will accept gently used backpacks, to put the food in and send home with kids.

Every day of the summer in Bonney Lake, kids ages 1 to 18 can eat free lunch and dinner at any and all of the following sites:

Picnic in The Park

• Lunch: Mon. – Sun. 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m.
• Dinner: Mon. – Sun. 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

• Lunch: Mon – Fri. 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
• Dinner: Mon., 6p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Forest View Apartments, 8313 Myers Rd. E. 

• Lunch: Mon – Fri 11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Ponderosa Estates, 20309 108th St. E.

• Lunch: Mon – Fri., 11:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

Rhododendron Park, 117th and 201st Ave. E.

• Lunch: Mon – Fri, 11:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Prairie Ridge, Prairie Ridge Dr. E.

• Lunch: Mon – Fri, 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.