All meals served at Anson County Schools will be free to all students, beginning Aug. 24 with the start of the 2015-16 school year.
The Board of Education unanimously approved the universal free option at its monthly meeting on May 18. The free meals are possible thanks to the school district’s participation in the Community Eligibility Provision Child Nutrition Program, Superintendent Michael Freeman said.
“We are committed to providing every student in our school community with the tools to succeed in school, which does include nutritious meals,” Freeman said.
He added that he hopes families will support this opportunity by encouraging children to eat breakfast and lunch at school each day.
“The CEP program is available as a result of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” Freeman explained. “The amended section of the National School Lunch Act and provides universal meal service to children in high poverty areas. To participate in CEP, a certain percentage of students in the district must qualify for free meals. That threshold is developed through a complex formula that includes such factors as the percentage of families in a community who receive food and nutrition services.”
More than three-quarters of Anson’s 3,500 students, or 76.77 percent, qualified for a free or a reduced-price lunch in the 2014-15 school year. “Hopefully, this initiative will help families by allowing them to have money normally spend on school meals to apply to another family need,” Freeman said.
Freeman also reported that members of the Child Nutrition staff are excited to know that every child they serve can now eat without the normal worries associated with challenges some children face, having to struggle to pay for meals.
“Our department’s main goal is to feed students healthy meals so that they are ready to learn,” said School Nutrition director Angela Griffin. “Providing breakfast and lunch free of charge to all students through community eligibility will allow us to feed more children. This is an opportunity that will benefit our students, our schools and our community.”