SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento City Unified School District is offering a new summer food pantry available for everyone.

The mobile food pantry is operating at five different locations Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

The program is in partnership with No Kid Hungry and the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services.

The Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services is providing boxes of shelf-stable items and they said food insecurity is on the rise in Sacramento this summer. One of the reasons is the lingering aftereffects of the pandemic. The others are high inflation and the rising cost of food.

Kevin Buffalino is a spokesperson for the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services.

“We have seen about a 40% increase in our services since March when inflation really hit. Those numbers were already going up prior to school being out but the summer is always tough,” Buffalino said.

The food bank is seeing a lot of first-timers this year and they always see an uptick in the summer.

Food Pantry Locations

The mobile food pantry is available from June 27 through August 12.

• Mondays: West Campus 5022 58th St., Sacramento
• Tuesdays: Father Keith B Kenny 3525 MLK Blvd., Sacramento
• Wednesdays: AM Winn 3350 Explorer Dr., Sacramento
• Thursdays: Rosa Parks K-8 68th Ave, Sacramento
• Fridays: Serna Center 5735 47th Ave., Sacramento

Summer can be a hard time for families struggling with food insecurity.

Some students rely on school for two out of three meals a day. At Sacramento City Unified and charter schools, Nutrition Services supplies 43,000 students a day. Seventy-five percent of those students qualify for free or reduced meal programs.

“Not all of those students are enrolled in summer programs and have access to the summer meals even though summer meals are available to anyone whether they are enrolled or not but some of them have trouble getting to all the summer locations, so we are really bringing the grocery boxes to where our community lives,” said Diana Flores Executive Director Nutrition Services, Central Kitchen and Distribution Services.

Currently, the summer food pantry is serving 100 families a day and it’s increasing every day.