Summer Meals
For Kids
Arycelis’ Story
June 2025
When school lets out for the summer, many children lose access to their most reliable source of daily nutrition — school meals. That shift leaves families across Southwest Texas facing a 20 million meal gap, straining already tight budgets to provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks at home.
Arycelis, a mother of five and guardian to three of her grandchildren, meets each day with determination. While her job as a home healthcare provider offers flexibility, it doesn’t always cover the extra costs of keeping her loved ones nourished during the summer months.
“My children are my joy,” Arycelis shares. “When I adopted my grandkids, I struggled. But God is with us and so is this community.”
A flyer from her grandchildren’s school led her to the Sonny Melendrez Community Center, a San Antonio Food Bank Summer Meals Site. There, her grandchildren now enjoy healthy meals, learning opportunities, and simply get to be kids.
“I started bringing all my kids to the Sonny Melendrez Community Center in the summer. It’s so much more than meals. They go on nature walks, play sports, do arts and crafts, and even swim. They come home smiling—every single day,” she says.
Thanks to her strength — and the generosity of supporters like you — Arycelis is making it through summer with hope and her children’s dreams still within reach: one wants to become a medic, another a cameraman, and her granddaughter hopes to be a nurse.
“Food is my biggest worry,” she says. “But this program gives me peace of mind… You’re not just feeding my children, you are helping shape their future.”
This summer, the San Antonio Food Bank is committed to Serving Bright Futures by offering no-cost, nutritious meals at Summer Meals Sites and through mobile grocery distributions across our region.
To learn more about our Summer Meals for Kids efforst, please visit www.safoodbank.org/summermeals.
