Many children – and adults – await the summer season with anticipation.  

They look forward to unscheduled time, hanging out with friends, visits to spray parks or swimming pools, summer camps and activities, and, of course, the Library’s Summer Reading Program.   

For some families, that time away from school can also reveal hardship. With limited resources and no free breakfasts and lunches, making sure there’s proper nutrition during the summer can be challenging.  

To help address these needs, the Library offers Kids Café year-round.  Nutritious meals are provided for children ages 1 to 18 after school at five branches, and, since the pandemic, at Pop In at the Park summer sites, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). 

“One of the things I really appreciate – this program is not limited to kids who are living in poverty, so it takes some of the stigma out of it,” says Jamie Mayo, assistant director of youth and family engagement. “It’s just: kids are hungry, so let’s get them some food. So that’s kind of a nice thing.” 

Since December, the Library has worked with Total Man. The nonprofit, which launched in 2013, focuses on addressing educational, social, or economic issues, including snacks and meals for children. 

“It's generally a juice, a milk, a fruit, or a vegetable,” Mayo says, “and then some kind of protein and some kind of grain. Everything from sandwiches to salads," which she says are surprisingly popular.  

During the summer months, some possible menu items include nacho cheese and tortilla chips, turkey and cheese on a hoagie bun, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, buffalo chicken wrap, pepperoni pita, and a chicken Caesar salad. 

Outreach Youth Librarian Elizabeth Giles says the Library selects four or five Kansas City Parks and Recreation sites for the summer Pop In at the Park program, spreading out geographically for “a broad reach across our service area.”  

This summer, the Library will ‘Pop In’ Tuesdays through Fridays at Gillham Park, Loose Park, Lykins Square Park, Marlborough Park, and Spring Valley Park – with free books for Summer Reading Program participants (children and adults), as well as activities and crafts, and Kids Café.  

“Because our Missouri summers are hot, we try to choose parks that offer some relief from the heat via amenities like splash pads, pools, or fountains,” says Giles. “We’ve learned through experience that we see the best turnout at parks that have water features, especially as the days heat up.”  

The goal, Giles says, is to mix in at least two or three new locations each year.  

“Now, we have quite a bit of experience ‘popping in’ at various parks – we’ve led this program in over 20 parks since 2020,” she says, “and we are basing our selection on past experiences and scouting of new park locations that we do each spring.” 

Years ago, Mayo recalls a bit of hesitancy about the Library serving snacks and meals to children. 

One concern: “You know, we’re ‘book people.’” And the question: “Is that outside our scope?” 

Mayo says that the Library soon found, after starting with snacks after school, that “some of the behavior issues that we were having at the site kind of went away as kids had some sustenance. It impacts their ability to take in information and to learn. So, we saw that in play and knew it was worth continuing.”