Children and families who depend on free school meals during the year can pick up lunch at Tacoma's Main Library through Aug. 28, after the City Council unanimously approved $15,000 to back a new food-access pilot with St. Leo Food Connection.
The vote on Wednesday, Aug. 5, makes the city's first formal investment linking Tacoma Public Library to a food-access nonprofit. The one-time allocation from Council contingency funds will pay for food and snacks distributed at library locations this summer.
Nearly 60 percent of Tacoma Public Schools students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, according to Parks Tacoma. When school lets out, that safety net disappears.
What the pilot includes
St. Leo Food Connection's partnership with the library has three parts: daily Summer Meals at Main Library, healthy snacks at three additional branches and a feasibility study for a pop-up food pantry at Main Library.
The three branch locations have not been publicly identified.
Free lunches are already being served. Youth ages 18 and under can pick up a meal from 1:30 to 1:45 p.m. Monday through Friday in front of Main Library at 1102 Tacoma Ave. South. St. Leo distributes meals even on Mondays, when the library itself is closed, according to Tacoma Public Library's announcement.
The program started June 24.
Who pushed it through
District 2 Council Member Sarah Rumbaugh sponsored Resolution 41977, with co-sponsors District 1 Council Member John Hines and District 3 Council Member Jamika Scott. Rumbaugh first brought the proposal to a council study session on Tuesday, July 21.
"As a teacher, I have seen firsthand the negative consequences our kids can face when they go hungry," Hines said at the Aug. 5 meeting. "Hunger cuts short our kids' potential by damaging their ability to focus in the classroom and setting back their physical development."
Rumbaugh said at the meeting that expanding food access for children in places where they spend time and feel safe has been her priority this year. Library Director Amita Lonial and St. Leo Food Connection Director Dawn Whitman both spoke in support of the partnership.
The bigger picture
St. Leo Food Connection, based at 1323 S. Yakima Ave., has operated in Tacoma since 1982. Its Summer Meals program delivers lunches to more than 250 children each weekday at apartment complexes and community centers. Its Backpack Program sends food home with more than 1,500 children each weekend at schools in Tacoma, Lakewood and Puyallup.
Parks Tacoma runs a separate free summer meal program that distributed 18,686 meals across the city in summer 2025, accounting for nearly 19 percent of all meals distributed countywide.
What's next
The pop-up pantry at Main Library remains under study. No date or follow-up vote has been scheduled. The $15,000 is a one-time allocation meant to evaluate whether library-based food distribution works as a model the city could expand.
