The San Francisco Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families (DCYF) is pleased to announce that we are sponsoring another year of free meals this summer and the upcoming 25-26 school year. All interested sites requesting to participate in a DCYF Nutrition Program are highly encouraged to read the DCYF Nutrition Program Handbook 2025 for more information as there are important updates for the upcoming program cycles. 

All sites are required to follow program regulations, including USDA Child Nutrition Programs rules and the Department of Public Health (DPH) rules regarding health and safety.

DCYF's Nutrition Programs service runtime:

• 2025 Summer Meal Program - Monday, June 9, 2025 - Friday, August 15, 2025
• 25-26 Afterschool Meal Program - Tuesday, September 2, 2025 - Wednesday, June 3, 2026

To organize the logistical aspect of delivering meals across San Francisco in partnership with our vendor Chefables and DPH, interested sites are REQUIRED to complete this application by Friday, March 14, 2025. 

Please note that the application is longer than normal to include program logistics for both the Summer and Afterschool Meal Program. Please plan accordingly to submit this application on time. You can save your work and return at a later date to complete before the deadline. However, if you have requested a verification code for your email, you must complete that piece within 24 hours. 

If your site needs to change information after submitting the application, please email nutrition@dcyf.org so we can better capture the change. Sites accepted into the program will also be able to finalize program logistics during the training in May or refresher training in August if not participating in summer.

Please note that this application is for sites requesting meals at non-SFUSD school sites. For sites located at a SFUSD school site please contact smithh4@sfusd.edu for any additional questions. 

As a reminder, this application is for sites needing meals at non-SFUSD school sites. For sites located at a SFUSD school site, please contact smithh4@sfusd.edu for any additional questions. 

Please provide the contact information of the person who can serve as the Primary Contact for your program. This person should be the staff or volunteer who will be working and/or managing the food distribution for the program. The Primary Contact will be the first person DCYF contacts with questions. 

A confirmation email and copy of your application submission will be sent to the email listed under the Primary Contact. If you do not receive a confirmation email or need to make edits, please contact nutrition@dcyf.org.

Please select the dates in which your site plans to begin and end meal service. Summer program will run from June 9, 2025 - August 15, 2025.

What time does your site plan to serve meals each day?

Keep in mind:

• All meals must be served between 8:00am - 6:00pm 
• Lunch service cannot exceed 2 hours
• Breakfast and snack cannot exceed 1 hour
• A minimum of one hour must elapse between the end of one meal service and the start of another.
  • Example: if lunch is from 12:00pm - 2:00pm, snack must begin after 3:00pm 

As a reminder, this application is for sites needing meals at non-SFUSD school sites. For sites located at a SFUSD school site please contact smithh4@sfusd.edu for any additional questions.

Please provide the contact information of the person who can serve as the Primary Contact for your program. This person should be the staff or volunteer who will be working and/or managing the food distribution for the program. The Primary Contact will be the first person DCYF contacts with questions. 

A confirmation email and copy of your application submission will be sent to the email listed under the Primary Contact. If you do not received a confirmation email or need to make edits, please contact nutrition@dcyf.org.

Per CDSS, all sites participating under the CACFP At-Risk grant (Afterschool Meal Program) are considered open sites and will be published on the free meals website. However, sites can require youth to be enrolled in their program in order to receive meals (open site - enrollment required). Otherwise, if your site does not requirement enrollment to participant in the food portion of your program, then your site can be an open site - drop in.

Open site - enrollment required - does not require any outreach signage to be posted.

Please select the dates on which your site plans to begin and end meal service. Afterschool program will run from September 2, 2025 - June 3, 2026.

What time does your site plan to serve meals each day?

Keep in mind:

• All meals must be served between 8:00am - 6:00pm 
• Supper service cannot exceed 2 hours
• Snack cannot exceed 1 hour
• A minimum of two hour must elapse between the start of one meal service and the start of another.
  • Example: if supper is from 2:00pm - 3:00pm, snack must begin after 4:00pm 

DCYF annual Mandatory Training in May will include program service information for both the Summer (SFSP) and Afterschool (CACFP) Meal Program. A refresher CACFP training will be hosted in August and will be mandatory for sites that may have issues in during the summer programming (and/or for sites that may only participating in the Afterschool Meal Program).

Only one person is required to attend from each serving location and must attend for the entire duration of the training, but more may attend if desired.At least one person who has received training must be present at each meal service and the person(s) attending the training should be those who will be serving the meals directly. If the person is not hired yet, then this person will be responsible for training site staff once they are hired. CDE/CDSS requires that each location serving meals has had at least one staff person trained by DCYF. Because of this, each serving location is required have a different person trained for each address that food is being served since folks who oversee multiple service areas cannot be at two places at once.

All approved sites will be requried to submit a form verifying that all staff from that site involved in the meal program such as persons serving food, supervising meal times, or completing paperwork for this program have been appropriately trained by whomever attends the DCYF training by the end of the first week of service.

Scheduled training dates:

Trainings will be held IN-PERSON and once a site is confirmed, a link will be sent out to register for training. Training dates are currently scheduled for the following days:

Mandatory training dates (need to attend at least 1 – not all 3)
Location: Human Services Agency, 170 Otis St. - Born Auditorium

• Tuesday, May 13 from 9:30am -2:30pm (with a 1 hour break)
• Wednesday, May 16 from 9:30am -2:30pm (with a 1 hour break)
• Thursday, May 21 from 9:30am -2:30pm (with a 1 hour break)

Refresher training
Location: TBD

• Friday, August 8 

Thank you for taking the time to complete the 2025-2026 DCYF Nutrition Program application.

By submitting this application, you verify that all of the information is accurate and you have been authorized by your agency to fill out this application in order to receive meals. 

You also agree that your agency will meet all regulations and requirements of the program. This includes, but is not limited to, attending mandatory trainings, filling out and submitting forms via ETS by deadlines, and staying in regular communication with DCYF staff. You understand that if you or your staff fail to comply with any requirements it may result in your site being charged fees for the meals or being removed from the program. 

Thank you for your application and your support in ensuring that all San Francisco youth have access to free, healthy food. 

DCYF will reach out to your site regarding next steps if additional information is needed.

If you have any further questions, please contact DCYF at nutrition@dcyf.org.

Your listed Primary contact for each program you applied to should receive a copy of your application submission after the application is submitted. 

NOTE: You must click "submit application" after "previewing your application" for your application to be submitted to DCYF, otherwise your application has not been submitted. DCYF will not accept sites that do not submit their application properly.