@ California to Offer Free Meals for Students

[ssmjlm]

www.cnn.com/2021/07/20/us/california-free-school-meals/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=igbioCNN&utm_content=2021-07-21T12:57:49


California will permanently begin providing free school meals for students this fall in a move that many advocates are praising as a big step toward ending food insecurity.

The meals program is part of a $123.9 billion education package that also includes free pre-kindergarten for all children, expanded after-school and summer programs, and adding more staff.

[lilac05]

This is great news, and I hope more states follow. (Though I’m sure mine won’t anytime soon.)

We took advantage of the free meals last year while doing virtual school. Every morning, we drove up to the school and picked up the lunches. It made for a part of the routine and made us feel like we were still a part of our community. We may not have needed them financially, but the relief of knowing that 1.5 meals a day were covered for my kids was a huge benefit to me mentally. We needed it in ways that I never even knew. That also freed up some money that we ended up putting back into the community in other ways.

[cmeon]

I'm honestly not sure we'd be able to pull back universal meals at this point, anyway! I believe the waivers that allow it right now expire in summer '22. It would be a very, very unpopular move to let it expire.

A big drawback we've seen, though- is that when meals are provided to everyone, regardless of need- families don't fill out the F&RL forms that determine eligibility for Title I funding. We've lost so much funding in so many schools in the past year due to this. We need to adjust how we determine the need.

[Jalapeñomel]

Not quite sure why this says California is the first, but Maine also said in June they would offer free meals to all students:

www.pressherald.com/2021/07/11/maine-among-first-states-to-make-school-meals-free-for-all-students/

[whattheheck]

A neighboring school district by me offers free meals to all students under 18 regardless of whether or not they reside in the school district. If you do weekly pick up (as opposed to daily) you get a really nice box of fresh produce that includes half a dozen eggs. A recent box of produce was (per student) a head of lettuce, apples, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, fresh garlic, cherries and some other stuff. You also get half gallon of milk per student along with all the cereals and snacks and the hot lunches. It's amazing. And heavily utilized. And the staff keeps improving traffic patterns and really keeps things moving.

[af1212]

Jul 21, 2021 19:14:11 GMT -5 cmeon said:

I'm honestly not sure we'd be able to pull back universal meals at this point, anyway! I believe the waivers that allow it right now expire in summer '22. It would be a very, very unpopular move to let it expire.

A big drawback we've seen, though- is that when meals are provided to everyone, regardless of need- families don't fill out the F&RL forms that determine eligibility for Title I funding. We've lost so much funding in so many schools in the past year due to this. We need to adjust how we determine the need.

I was under the impression it was until December 2021. I hope it goes until at least June!

[lilac05]

Jul 21, 2021 19:56:00 GMT -5 whattheheck said:

A neighboring school district by me offers free meals to all students under 18 regardless of whether or not they reside in the school district. If you do weekly pick up (as opposed to daily) you get a really nice box of fresh produce that includes half a dozen eggs. A recent box of produce was (per student) a head of lettuce, apples, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, fresh garlic, cherries and some other stuff. You also get half gallon of milk per student along with all the cereals and snacks and the hot lunches. It's amazing. And heavily utilized. And the staff keeps improving traffic patterns and really keeps things moving.

That’s really awesome!

I will say that our meals this year were frequently nutritionally…questionable. Especially breakfast. They frequently got those big cereal bars. Lots of sugar and beige foods. A frequent “main dish” was cheese-filled breadsticks. However, I know it’s a really hard line to walk. Serving a hard boiled egg and whole wheat toast is, in theory, nutritionally better…but only if the kids actually eat it. It doesn’t do anyone any good if it ends up in the trash can, like the “taco” flavored hummus that was served with the veggies frequently. It was AWFUL. My kids eat almost everything and wouldn’t touch it. I tried it and wouldn’t eat it, either.

We haven’t heard anything about the 21-22 school year yet. The neighboring district had free meals all summer, but we don’t (through the school). I wonder what will happen in the fall.

[pierogigirl]

NY is doing this for next year, too. In my district, unfortunately, the breakfasts and lunches were mostly low quality food with some fresh fruit and vegetables. However, my kids hate making lunches and happily ordered lunch every day.

[al dente]

Hawaii is doing this too for the 21/22 school year. The headline I read said it was part of a USDA nationwide program.

[plutosmoon]

I like this news!

My district has done free breakfast and lunch for all kids for at least the last 6 years through community eligibility provision, probably longer, but we've only been in the district for 6 years. It's a really great program and I like how it removes the stigma of free lunch. They have an additional deal with some local farms to provide some locally grown produce as well.

Free lunches have always run nearly year round even pre pandemic. Just before the pandemic they even began offering free dinners to kids, during the pandemic there were grab and go breakfast, lunch and dinner available to any child under 18. I would go on days my child was not in daycare this past year, they always gave me so much food. The food is ok, not super great sometimes, but not terrible either.

cmeon, my district doesn't require the lunch forms from anyone, so I'm not entirely sure how they determine our ongoing eligibility for the program and our Title I funding. The community eligibility provision waives the forms, they aren't even available anymore. I think it's tied to our community snap usage and other means tested programs, so our funding level hasn't been impacted by free lunches for all and lack of forms. I'm surprised they aren't applying the same methodology for funding in non community eligible title 1 schools, although seems like most title 1 schools should have already been in the community provision.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Jul 21, 2021 19:56:00 GMT -5 whattheheck said:

A neighboring school district by me offers free meals to all students under 18 regardless of whether or not they reside in the school district. If you do weekly pick up (as opposed to daily) you get a really nice box of fresh produce that includes half a dozen eggs. A recent box of produce was (per student) a head of lettuce, apples, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, fresh garlic, cherries and some other stuff. You also get half gallon of milk per student along with all the cereals and snacks and the hot lunches. It's amazing. And heavily utilized. And the staff keeps improving traffic patterns and really keeps things moving.

Our district does this and it's really nice.

[noodleoo]

Jul 21, 2021 20:21:26 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

Jul 21, 2021 19:56:00 GMT -5 whattheheck said:

A neighboring school district by me offers free meals to all students under 18 regardless of whether or not they reside in the school district. If you do weekly pick up (as opposed to daily) you get a really nice box of fresh produce that includes half a dozen eggs. A recent box of produce was (per student) a head of lettuce, apples, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, fresh garlic, cherries and some other stuff. You also get half gallon of milk per student along with all the cereals and snacks and the hot lunches. It's amazing. And heavily utilized. And the staff keeps improving traffic patterns and really keeps things moving.

That’s really awesome!

I will say that our meals this year were frequently nutritionally…questionable. Especially breakfast. They frequently got those big cereal bars. Lots of sugar and beige foods. A frequent “main dish” was cheese-filled breadsticks. However, I know it’s a really hard line to walk. Serving a hard boiled egg and whole wheat toast is, in theory, nutritionally better…but only if the kids actually eat it. It doesn’t do anyone any good if it ends up in the trash can, like the “taco” flavored hummus that was served with the veggies frequently. It was AWFUL. My kids eat almost everything and wouldn’t touch it. I tried it and wouldn’t eat it, either.

We haven’t heard anything about the 21-22 school year yet. The neighboring district had free meals all summer, but we don’t (through the school). I wonder what will happen in the fall.

This was our experience. The breakfasts were cereal, usually Frosted Flakes or Cocoa Puffs or bagels. The lunches were mostly fast foods (chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza, etc), with a starch (fries, mashed potatoes that were nasty, etc) a veggie of some sort and canned fruit. I was really surprised how low quality it was. The thing that really bugged me was that the vegetarian alternate was grilled cheese or a bagel with string cheese *every single day*. We let DD1 get lunch once or twice a week because she enjoyed it but I’m shocked school lunches haven’t progressed further since I was a kid. 

I realize this is better than nothing for kids who need it, so I’m thankful they have it as an option, but I really think our district could and should do better. 

[cmeon]

Jul 21, 2021 20:52:21 GMT -5 plutosmoon said:

I like this news!

My district has done free breakfast and lunch for all kids for at least the last 6 years through community eligibility provision, probably longer, but we've only been in the district for 6 years. It's a really great program and I like how it removes the stigma of free lunch. They have an additional deal with some local farms to provide some locally grown produce as well.

Free lunches have always run nearly year round even pre pandemic. Just before the pandemic they even began offering free dinners to kids, during the pandemic there were grab and go breakfast, lunch and dinner available to any child under 18. I would go on days my child was not in daycare this past year, they always gave me so much food. The food is ok, not super great sometimes, but not terrible either.

cmeon , my district doesn't require the lunch forms from anyone, so I'm not entirely sure how they determine our ongoing eligibility for the program and our Title I funding. The community eligibility provision waives the forms, they aren't even available anymore. I think it's tied to our community snap usage and other means tested programs, so our funding level hasn't been impacted by free lunches for all and lack of forms. I'm surprised they aren't applying the same methodology for funding in non community eligible title 1 schools, although seems like most title 1 schools should have already been in the community provision.

Florida.

[plutosmoon]

Jul 21, 2021 21:32:05 GMT -5 cmeon said:

Jul 21, 2021 20:52:21 GMT -5 plutosmoon said:

I like this news!

My district has done free breakfast and lunch for all kids for at least the last 6 years through community eligibility provision, probably longer, but we've only been in the district for 6 years. It's a really great program and I like how it removes the stigma of free lunch. They have an additional deal with some local farms to provide some locally grown produce as well.

Free lunches have always run nearly year round even pre pandemic. Just before the pandemic they even began offering free dinners to kids, during the pandemic there were grab and go breakfast, lunch and dinner available to any child under 18. I would go on days my child was not in daycare this past year, they always gave me so much food. The food is ok, not super great sometimes, but not terrible either.

cmeon , my district doesn't require the lunch forms from anyone, so I'm not entirely sure how they determine our ongoing eligibility for the program and our Title I funding. The community eligibility provision waives the forms, they aren't even available anymore. I think it's tied to our community snap usage and other means tested programs, so our funding level hasn't been impacted by free lunches for all and lack of forms. I'm surprised they aren't applying the same methodology for funding in non community eligible title 1 schools, although seems like most title 1 schools should have already been in the community provision.

Florida.

Ugh, I forgot. Silly me thinking the feds set up some sort of nationwide standard for something.

[cmeon]

Jul 21, 2021 21:43:00 GMT -5 plutosmoon said:

Jul 21, 2021 21:32:05 GMT -5 cmeon said:

Florida.

Ugh, I forgot. Silly me thinking the feds set up some sort of nationwide standard for something.

I believe it's up to districts to apply (so only "Florida" in the sense that we're fucked by funding allocation methods here). Some of our FL districts do use CEP, we're unfortunately, a "giver" (and often among the worst) when it comes to school funding, so it's been many lean years and the requirement that local funding cover federal shortages (over a 4 year period) is a tough pill when we don't know if we're in the red next year or not. I am curious to know if we're reconsidering now, though- my kid's middle school lost over $300K next year in T1 funding, and it's even worse in the high schools that fell short.

[sonrisa]

Jul 21, 2021 18:41:17 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

California will permanently begin providing free school meals for students this fall in a move that many advocates are praising as a big step toward ending food insecurity.

The meals program is part of a $123.9 billion education package that also includes free pre-kindergarten for all children, expanded after-school and summer programs, and adding more staff.

This is great.

It is also going to cause an up roar at our school district. Both the free prekindergarten and the free meals.

For food: Right now the PTA uses meals as a fundraiser (a percentage of every meal sale goes to PTA).

Free pre-K: It's a "community funded" district (ie. property tax receipts exceed what the state would provide. So instead of taking state money, the district just uses that amount). As a result, more students enrollment means less per student funding. Enrollment is down a lot overall after spiking when housing prices dipped in 2010, and the subsequent high sales have increased revenues, but I still expect a huge amount of complaining. Before they complained that dropping enrollment meant donations were down. Now they'll complain that rising enrollment means less per child. the level of privilege exhausting. 



I bet they'll do with "free pre-K" what they did with TK in the past - make it as inconvenient as possible discourage people from signing up (TK was only 11-1).

[1confused1]

This is great!

We live in California and took advantage of the free lunch program last year. The kids were only in school for 3 hours a day so they would pick up lunch to bring home, but the majority of the food had to be reheated and/or was frozen. I am curious how they will handle the free lunches at local schools and what will happen to the leftovers.

[gretchenindisguise]

We live in CA and definitely took advantage last year and am excited again for this year. I do wonder what happens to the balance we had for our eldest’s lunch that we loaded in February 2020 🤦‍♀️ Figuring out what to pack for the kids’ lunch is almost as bad as figuring out what is for dinner.

That’s interesting/sad to hear that schools are inadvertently losing funding due to this. It definitely seems like an unintended consequence that will hopefully be rectified.

[ssmjlm]

I know DH and I had similar thoughts with the variety and type of food, but we also realized that in a lot of cases it was stuff that could be easily portioned and/or individual wrapped since kids were going from the cafeteria back to the room to eat. Breakfast was grab and go at the 2 doors they use in the mornings.

I hope this becomes universal. I know my picky eater was 50/50 on lunch, but she regularly got a second breakfast at school since she tends to front load her calories.

[aspentosh]

That's so great.

Our county has been providing free daily meals for anyone under 18 since they shut down the school. It used to be given out daily, but it's been pushed back to once a week. You can pickup from the school, or a bus will drop off at certain locations. No asking for ID or age or proof of residency. It's such a great step to help with food insecurity.

[Jalapeñomel]

Here’s the info on what’s happening with the USDA program that provided lunches for the 2020-2021 school year:

www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2021/04/20/usda-issues-pandemic-flexibilities-schools-and-day-care-facilities

USDA Issues Pandemic Flexibilities for Schools and Day Care Facilities through June 2022 to Support Safe Reopening and Healthy, Nutritious Meals

www.agweek.com/news/government-and-politics/6994411-Free-school-lunches-to-continue-in-2021-22-school-year-USDA-says

Free school lunches to continue in 2021-22 school year, USDA says

[twinmomma]

I've been shocked at the discrepancy between districts here with the free lunches. I kind of always assumed that school lunches weren't the best, based on our experience and my experiences growing up. In school or during covid, the food in our town is chicken fingers, pizza twice a week, hot dogs, burgers, and sometimes pasta. That's it. The same menu on the same days every week. My kids have given up on it because it's just not good food. Meanwhile, the district next door is sending home the full boxes of veggies, loaves of bread, and milk like whattheheck mentioned.

I don't know how it all works, but am kind of stumped that federal money is supposed to be paying for the lunches, but the quality and nutritional value swings so wildly from school to school. Again, like others have said, the food our district sends home is better than nothing and makes a big difference for a lot of families. But I was pretty surprised to see the differences.

[lexus]

Jul 21, 2021 19:22:04 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Not quite sure why this says California is the first, but Maine also said in June they would offer free meals to all students:

www.pressherald.com/2021/07/11/maine-among-first-states-to-make-school-meals-free-for-all-students/

Is Maine implementing this just for the next school year? The CA one is supposed to be permanent.

[nicanmatt]

Maryland has been giving free food all summer. Our county has it scheduled for once a week pick up. Lots of junky pizza, mystery meat sandwiches, cereal bars and canned fruit cups. But there's also a lot of frozen corn/broccoli and fresh produce. At least always a few apples and oranges but we've also gotten 2 heads of romaine and cherry tomato packages. One week we got packages of strawberries too. 2 weeks ago each kid got 10 apples, 5 russet potatoes and a cantaloupe!

I have started to base my grocery shopping off what the school provides, because some weeks it's overwhelming how much food we receive. I'm fortunate that I don't depend wholly on this offer to feed my family. Today is pick up day and I'm already reminding friends to go pick up their food! Who knows what surprises will be in store. haha!!

[scm1011]

I'm in a Title 1 district so our schools serve free breakfast, lunch, and snack to everyone and the choices are pretty good. Breakfast is things like yogurt + granola, egg & cheese sandwiches, or whole wheat pancakes. Lunches are things like roasted chicken with bean salad or meatballs on a whole wheat roll with carrot sticks. They also promote a different seasonally appropriate vegetable each month. I'm impressed with their menu and relieved to not have to pack lunches for DS anymore.

[breezy8407]

Great news. I've been really impressed by our districts meals this summer. The quality has really increased, but I'm sure its because of the seasonal availability of fresh veggies and fruit. The last meal kit was chicken tacos, and we've been able to make so many meals with the chicken.

[glitzy07]

My neighbor is the head "lunch lady" (nutrition services manager?) for one of our district's high schools (in MN). She seems pretty confident that the free lunch for all programs will continue past 2022 and be permanent here. I'm not sure what her source is, but I think it's fantastic.

We haven't taken advantage of the meals that you pick up weekly, but even just saving the ~$60/month on hot lunch fees last year was such a help.

[katfco]

Our district has provided free breakfast and lunches to all k-8 students for several years, but they've gotten steadily more disgusting. While they do provide fresh fruit and some sort of vegetable in non-covid times, during COVID, the food they were given was bizarre. The fruit for breakfast was craisins (tons of sugar there).

One day, one of the summer school teachers shared what the kids had been given that day: strawberry apple sauce, a small bag of Cheez-its, a small container of bean dip, a small container of smoked gouda cheese dip and a container of ranch.

What bothers me most is the rules regarding school lunch funding that requires all leftover food to be thrown away. Kids aren't allowed to take it home or even supposed to consume it outside the lunch room. They have to watch it dumped.