DATE: April 22, 2026
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
FROM: Library Department
TITLE: ACCEPTANCE OF GRANT FUNDS FROM CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY TO CONTINUE LUNCH AT THE LIBRARY SERVICES
RECOMMENDATION
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Staff recommends that the City Council accept $67,258 in grant funds from California State Library, awarded to the City to support Lunch at the Library services, and appropriate these funds to the Library & Cultural Arts Department.
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BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Lunch at the Library is a project of the California State Library (CSL), developed by the California Library Association (CLA) and the California Summer Meal Coalition, with support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. It provides California libraries with the opportunity to apply for funds that will support existing free meal and food distribution sites and promote literacy, health, and well-being enrichment activities at these locations.
From 2018 through 2026, the Library has received Lunch at the Library award funds to enhance meal programming, promote early learning, and to educate families about healthy nutrition at the Library and at existing free meal and distribution sites for youth throughout Oceanside.
Funding has been reduced statewide, and the City has been awarded California State Library grant funds in a lesser amount of $67,258, a decrease of $11,761 from last year and a dramatic $133,483 less than the year prior to that. The 2025-2026 Lunch at the Library grant will provide programming support for ages 0 to 18 at the Civic Center and John Landes Community Center Libraries, other community food distribution sites, and pop-up youth activity programs in Oceanside, including the Libby Lake, Crown Heights, and Chavez Community Resource Centers, and Joe Balderrama Park and Melba Bishop Recreation Centers, throughout the summer. The Lunch at the Library grant program runs from February 2026 to January 2027.
To support and promote summer reading and learning, the Ocean...
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