Kids Cafe
The Houston Food Bank’s Kids Cafe program partners with various community sites to provide free meals and snacks to low-income children up to 18 years in age. The objective of Kids Cafe is to help alleviate childhood hunger by providing children with access to fresh, healthy and warm meals in after-school, summer, and child care programs.
Kids Cafe
Nourishing, kid-friendly meals served year-round to children in child care, after-school and summer meal program sites throughout 18 southeast Texas counties.
Nourishing, kid-friendly meals served year-round to children in child care, after-school and summer meal program sites throughout 18 southeast Texas counties.
Kids Cafe provides fresh, healthy meals and snacks for children up to 18 years old. Meals are cooked in our on-site Keegan Kitchen year-round on weekdays and distributed through our partnerships with after school, child care and summer meal sites. Use our map to find a Kids Cafe location near you.
Partner with the Houston Food Bank
Grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture allow the Houston Food Bank to partner with community organizations to ensure children have access to free meals during the summer and after school. All meals meet or exceed USDA requirements.
Organizations that would like to partner with the Houston Food Bank must complete an application and meet program requirements.
To ensure a smooth application process, double check that your site name and all required information is correct. If you are new to our application site, you must register for an account. If your site isn’t listed in our system, please enter its full name to create a new entry.
Apply here or contact kidscafe@houstonfoodbank.org for more information.
- Summer Meal Program
When school is out for the summer, organizations can partner with the Houston Food Bank to provide breakfast, lunch and snack options to nourish our youth. Through the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), the Houston Food Bank provides more than 12,000 meals per day to more than 250 community sites.
Program runs through: June 2,2025 – August 8, 2025
- After School Program
Children should have nutritious food to fuel their evenings. Kids Cafe, funded by the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), provides meals and snacks to our network of after-school enrichment sites. Participation encourages academic success, health and wellness, and physical activity. More than one million meals were provided by Kids Cafe last fiscal year.
Program runs: Expected To run from August to May.
Child Care Meals
Kids Cafe also offers a range of hot meals and snacks tailored to the nutritional needs of infants and children enrolled in public, private or nonprofit childcare facilities, Head Start programs and other licensed institutions approved to participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). Participating organizations will also receive continuous nutrition education sessions, resources to promote healthy eating in the classroom, and the opportunity to engage with the Houston Food Bank Culinary Healthy Education for Families (CHEF) program.
Program runs: year round.
“So happy to have a great partner for our center to use to ensure youth are receiving a healthy & nourishing meal.”
“Peace of mind on the parents- it allows them to be stress free on whether their child is receiving a healthy meal every day.”
“The partnership to us and our center means a lot we are grateful to be able to still be with the program for a long time.”
“Children receive a wide variety of healthy meals we could not provide with our kids cafe.”
“The Houston Food Bank has helped out a lot at our center . It has been a wonderful opportunity and we are truly grateful.”
“It means a lot for us and the children.”
“It means a lot and is appreciated because the children at our center get nutritious meals that they might not have or get at home especially if their parents have busy schedules.”
“It provides our children with nutritious meals.”
“They have been a tremendous help with providing meals, educating our staff and we especially love the new activities they have been providing our daycare with!”
“It means a lot because we depend on Houston Food Bank to provide nutritious meals for our students. It’s a very important partnership that we want to continue to grow and improve.”
For questions regarding Kids Cafe, please contact:
Kids Cafe Program
kidscafe@houstonfoodbank.org
This institution is an equal opportunity provider. In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.
Have a concern? Submit a confidential report to Lighthouse Services, a third party who helps Houston Food Bank resolve issues.