Free meals – both breakfast and lunch – will be served to every Allen Parish student attending schools in the district for the next four years (2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27) regardless of their household income. This, is being made possible through USDA’s CEP (Community Eligibility Provision), which is a federal school meal funding option that enables schools, participating in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, to provide free meals to all students.
April Fruge Hall, child nutrition programs supervisor for the district, said the parish was allowed to use Medicaid data, along with the other data, it uses to prove the parish would qualify for CEP.
“There will be no meal applications and no paperwork as far as school meals,” Hall explained. “All of our students will eat free.”
Hall encourages parents to put a few dollars in their child’s meal program though. She said this will pay for extra milk, juice, a second serving, additional items and even baked chips and ice cream for students wishing to purchase those items. She hopes all students will take advantage of eating at school and receiving free breakfast and lunch each day over the next few years.
Hall said the district expects 4,000 students to eat this year in the school cafeterias. She said last year approximately 30 percent of students ate breakfast and 55 to 65 percent ate lunch. With free access to meals, she hoping the district hits 100 percent or close to it.
The program will reimburse the schools based on a formula. It does not reimburse the district for adult meals, so employees will continue to pay $1.75 for breakfast and $3 for lunch. Visitors will pay a small fee too to eat in the cafeteria.
Louisiana joins eight states allowed to Medicaid data in this formula qualifying them for the CEP program. Next year, more states will be added to the program.
To learn more, visit the parish’s food service website –https://www.allen.k12.la.us.
