Kids across the Newport-Mesa Unified School District can still get a free lunch this week and next at the Costa Mesa Donald Dungan Library, but the program ends Friday, July 10.
Any child 18 or younger can walk in and eat from noon to 1 p.m. on weekdays. No enrollment in an NMUSD school or summer program is required, and there is no paperwork or income check at the door. The program serves families from across the district, including Newport Beach.
The library site is the only NMUSD-affiliated location open to all children regardless of enrollment, according to the district's nutrition services website. Students enrolled in NMUSD summer programs can also get free breakfast and lunch at TeWinkle Middle School and four elementary campuses: College Park, Wilson, Lincoln, and Whittier.
Remaining schedule
The program runs Monday through Friday. The district calendar lists Thursday, July 3 as a no-school day; families should call NMUSD nutrition services at 714-424-5090 to confirm whether the library site follows the same schedule. Meals will be served Monday, July 7, through the final day on Friday, July 10.
How it's funded
The U.S. Department of Agriculture funds the Summer Food Service Program to feed children during stretches when school is out for 15 or more consecutive days. NMUSD's summer session began Monday, June 15, and the lunch program launched the same day.
Separately, the district's academic summer programs have scaled back in recent years after one-time pandemic-era state and federal relief funds expired. The NMUSD Board of Education has supplemented state Extended Learning Opportunity Program funding with general funds to keep academic programs running. The meal program itself is federally funded through the USDA and was not affected by that reduction.
Finding other meal sites after July 10
Once the NMUSD program ends, families looking for free summer meals elsewhere in Orange County can search the California Department of Education's 2026 Summer Meal Service Sites page or the USDA's Summer Meals Site Finder at fna.usda.gov/sfsp/sitefinder.
Families can also call the National Hunger Hotline at 1-866-348-6479 (English) or 1-877-842-6273 (Spanish), Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time.
For questions about the NMUSD program, call nutrition services at 714-424-5090.
