Denver’s free meal program for kids back at 19 sites across city all summer

School’s out, but lunch is still served. Denver’s Tasty Food program launched this week, offering free meals to any child ages 3 to 18 at 19 locations across the city — no ID, no registration, no paperwork required.

The program, run by the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment through the city’s Office of Children’s Affairs, operates at recreation centers and community sites from June 1 through Aug. 21. Most locations serve breakfast and lunch on weekdays, with some also offering snacks. Meals are prepared fresh, designed to be low in fat and built around the five major food groups. Menus — including a June lineup already posted online in English and Spanish — rotate monthly.

The timing matters. Grocery prices remain elevated heading into summer, and for the roughly one in four Denver Public Schools students who qualified for free or reduced-price meals during the school year, the end of classes can mean the end of a reliable daily meal. Tasty Food is designed to fill that gap, and the program has been a fixture of Denver summers since the city first launched it years ago.

Participating sites span the city, from Ashland Recreation Center on the west side to Swansea Recreation Center in the Globeville-Elyria-Swansea corridor on the northeast, with stops in between at centers in Montbello, Westwood, Harvey Park, Lincoln Park and other neighborhoods. A full list of locations, hours and meal times is posted at denvergov.org — search “Tasty Food” — or parents can call 311 for help finding a site nearby. The USDA’s national Summer Meals Site Finder at fns.usda.gov also includes Colorado locations.

Denver families looking for additional food support can also find summer meal programs through Denver Public Schools, which offers free weekday meals to all children 18 and under at select school sites, and through statewide resources like the Colorado Department of Education’s Summer Food Service Program.