H.R. 9587: Summer Meals Reaching Every Area’s Child Hunger Act of 2026

This bill would change the federal summer food service program for children in several ways. Its main goal is to make summer meal service easier to provide and broader in reach.

What the bill changes

• Allows noncongregate meals: It would let summer meals be served in a “noncongregate” way, meaning children would not have to eat on-site in a group setting. Meals could be picked up and taken away.
• Makes all children eligible: It states that all children would be eligible to participate in the program, rather than limiting eligibility in the way current rules may do.
• Expands meal service options: It would allow food service monitoring to happen either onsite or offsite, giving administrators more flexibility in how they oversee the program.
• Changes meal-use rules: It removes language that restricted certain meals to specific circumstances and replaces it with language allowing meals to be served to all children.

Noncongregate meal rules

The bill would direct that, starting no later than the first summer after enactment, summer program meals may be offered for noncongregate consumption. It also removes several existing subparagraphs tied to older noncongregate meal rules and replaces them with new guidance.

Under the new approach, states would be required to:

• identify areas without congregate meal service that could benefit most from noncongregate meals, and
• encourage participating organizations in those areas to provide noncongregate meals when appropriate.

The Secretary of Agriculture would also be required to issue regulations within one year, including interim final regulations, to carry out the changes. Those regulations would need to address program integrity and draw on lessons from prior noncongregate meal demonstrations and earlier temporary noncongregate meal practices.

Regulatory and technical changes

The bill also requires the Secretary to issue or revise regulations to match the amended law, including certain existing federal rules in the Code of Federal Regulations. It makes a conforming change to the statute’s payment section as well.

Relevant Companies

None found