Curbing the Summer Slide: Read United At Meal Sites

Summer break is highly anticipated and celebrated by most children. However, for children who rely on school for meals and reading enrichment, it can be a challenge. Did you know that children can lose up to two months of learning over the summer break? For children in high-need areas with no access to books or summer learning activities, the loss can be even greater. Read United: Summer is designed to keep children engaged and excited about reading and learning over the summer months. United Way of Pierce County staff, interns and volunteers visit free summer meal sites in high-need, low-access areas throughout the summer to read with kids and give away books for the children to keep and read at home anytime!

For the first time, United Way of Pierce County is helping to ensure children are receiving supplemental snacks to feed their bodies in addition to books to feed their minds over the summer! On United Way Worldwide’s Day of Action in June, 3,050 Summer Snack Packs and 150 Summer Learning Packs were assembled. We are grateful to our corporate sponsors and volunteers, whose support made this project possible. The snack packs, which include healthy packaged items and shelf-stable milk, will be distributed each week to 150+ children at the Read United: Summer sites in Tacoma, Lakewood and Franklin Pierce school districts. Children in attendance will also have the opportunity to sign up for ongoing engagement for 6-8 weeks and receive a Summer Learning Pack to keep them motivated.

Research on book deserts, areas that lack of access to print reading materials, show that the summer months drastically limit book access in high-poverty neighborhoods, according to Urban Education. The effects of the summer slide are cumulative: losing months of learning each summer can place children an entire grade behind their peers over the duration of their elementary education and researchers estimate that by the time a struggling reader reaches middle school, summer reading loss has accumulated to a two-year lag in reading achievement.

Join us and make a difference for a child in need this summer. By bringing together caring individuals, resources and summer feeding and reading programs,you can take advantage of a great opportunity to support summer learning and cultivate a love of reading with children. This is a multi-disciplinary approach with  Hunger-Free Pierce County to enhance the educational component of their work. Through effective partnerships, we trust more children can be impacted by this approach.

For more information about Read United, please email volunteer@uwpc.org or register for a lunchtime volunteer session here volunteer session here