Feed Your Brain Project

2008 Slideshow See pictures of the SOWA Team at this year's fundraiser at Husky Stadium on April 27, 2008!

Feed Your Brain Grants Learn about our Feed Your Brain grant program to fund summer programs in rural areas which give kids access to summer learning and summer food.

Summer Learning Resources We've compiled a range of resources to help you plan your summer programming.

The Feed Your Brain project provides resources to high-poverty, rural communities in Washington State in order to increase the number of children who participate in literacy activities and who receive nutritious meals during the summer months.

Without access to summer learning programs, children living in these communities are likely to experience significant learning loss or “brain drain”.  In addition to learning losses, many children in these communities also experience hunger in the summer months because they do not have access to the free lunch programs at school. 

To offset summer learning loss, Feed Your Brain program sites receive grants to be able to hire qualified staff that can provide literacy instruction and to purchase curriculum, supplies and materials that are needed to infuse reading and writing into their programs.  In addition to grant dollars, programs also receive technical assistance in order to ensure that they are engaging children in high quality academic enrichment activities. 

Feed Your Brain program sites are also required to sponsor open sites through the USDA/OSPI Summer Feeding Program.  Through this program, all children in the community can access free meals during the summer months.