Prince William County Serves Record Number Of Summer Meals To Students: Report

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA – Kids in Prince William County ate more than 114,000 meals in June and July through the USDA’s Rural Non-Congregate Summer Meal Service this year. Combined with the 89,756 meals eaten at school sites over the summer through the USDA Summer Food Service Program, that's 204,620 summer meals for kids, more than 75,000 more meals than the school division provided last summer, according to a new report.

The Prince William Times reports that hundreds of parents participated in the Rural Non-Congregate Summer Meal Service, a drive-thru meal distribution program, which was organized at Manassas’ Colgan High School. Families could pick up 10 meals per child at the site: five breakfasts and five lunches. The meals come as packs including single servings of breakfast cereals, snacks like string cheese, school lunch favorites like pizza bites and popcorn chicken, fruit and vegetables, and a container of milk.

The Colgan High School site qualified for the program because it falls within a federally designated “rural area” and at least one school in its attendance zone, at least half the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, the outlet reports. In this case, the qualifying school was Coles Elementary School.

According to the Capital Area Food Bank, 43 percent of residents of Prince William County experienced food insecurity at some point in 2025, a seven-point jump from 2023. The Prince William Times reports that new restrictions on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits have caused participation in the program to drop by nearly 14 percent over the past year.

Demand was so high for the kids' meals in the first week of the program that the organizers had to coordinate with Prince William County police to manage traffic.

Read more from the Prince William Times here.