In its eighth consecutive year, the St. Luke’s Summer Meals Program will be providing free lunches in Allentown and Quakertown to ensure every school-age child has access to nutritious meals during the summer months.
St. Luke’s Community Health Department launched the Summer Meals program in response to the Network’s Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), which showed that more than half of students in the Allentown and Quakertown Community School Districts are eligible for free and reduced meals during the academic year.
“When school is out, many children lose a consistent, reliable source of nutritious meals, putting their health and well-being at risk during the summer months,” says Dr. Rajika Reed, Vice President of Community Health. “Providing access to healthy lunches during this time is essential to ensure children continue to grow, learn, and thrive, while also supporting families.”
In Allentown, free grab-and-go meals can be picked up at Star Community Health’s Sigal Center in Allentown on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from June 11 to August 20, 2026. Meals will be available for pick-up beginning at noon. The 2026 Summer Meals Program in Allentown is supported by Hatzel & Buehler, Inc., which has been committed to making an impact in the communities it serves since the program’s inception.
“Programs like Summer Meals are critical to bridging the gap when school is out and ensuring children continue to receive the nutrition they need every day,” says Dr. Alycia Walty, Chief Medical Officer, Star Community Health. “Proper nutrition is fundamental to a child’s growth and development, supporting not only physical health but also cognitive and emotional well-being. We are proud to partner in this effort to support families, strengthen community health, and ensure every child has the opportunity to grow and thrive year-round.”
In Quakertown, free summer meals will be served Mondays through Fridays at Free Fall Action Park (670 S. Main Street, Quakertown) from June 15 – August 28, 2026, from 12 to 2 pm. This location will also be providing children with non-perishable food each Friday to take home to their families. Students and families will also be connected to the Quakertown Farmers Market for fresh, local produce. Penn Community Bank has invested in St. Luke’s Quakertown Summer Meals since the program began.
The contributions from Hatzel & Buehler, Penn Community Bank, and other private donors ensure children have access to a wide variety of healthy meal options, nourishment over the weekends, financial literacy education, and other engaging activities.
To identify other food access points in Allentown, Quakertown, or other regions, please visit www.sluhn.findhelp.com.
About St. Luke’s
Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than $4.5 billion. With 23,000+ employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350+ outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley’s biggest employer.
The Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital is based at the Bethlehem Campus.
Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation’s oldest continuously operated School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 60+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 550+ residents and fellows. Additionally, the St. Luke’s College of Health Sciences opened in 2026.
In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke’s #1 – ahead of Houston Methodist and Mayo Clinic, two of the nation’s most prestigious institutions – as the nation’s top health system for quality, safety and patient experience. This objective recognition, based on public data reported to the government, reaffirms St. Luke’s preeminent position as THE BEST OF THE BEST among the most respected health care systems in the United States.
St. Luke’s has been named a Leapfrog Group Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. In 2026, all of the Network’s eligible hospital campuses were awarded Medicare’s highest ratings for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. The Network also earned straight A’s for safety from Leapfrog across all of its acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 12 years in a row, including in 2026 when the Network was identified as THE #1 MEDIUM-SIZE HEALTH SYSTEM IN THE COUNTRY. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.
Information provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy
