Turns out there is free lunch - TownLift, Park City News

School lunch. Photo: Felix Kolthoff

PARK CITY, Utah. — When school starts on Monday, no students will go hungry thanks to a working partnership between the Park City School District (PCSD) and the U.S. Government. All students are now offered a free, basic, school breakfast and lunch. A la carte options are still offered at a cost.

When COVID – 19 hit and then schools began reopening but parents had fewer resources from which to keep up with the cost of school lunches, Washington DC came up with a plan.

John Hopkins is the director of the PCSD Child Nutrition Director. When asked about the free breakfast and lunch policy he said, “The USDA offered the waiver in late August last year, and the PCSD implemented it in November.” In anticipation of increased participation, rather than the usual amount of home lunches, they were providing a new service model early last year due to Covid-19 mitigation anyway and they figured out, logistically how to accommodate the higher volumes. Hopkins presented the benefits of implementing the new program, and the students and the Superintendent, “gave it a green light.”

person holding red apple fruit during daytime

This is a nationwide waiver. Districts make the decisions if they want to participate or not

In early June of this summer, when the waiver was extended through the forthcoming school year, the PCSD adopted the policy without hesitation.

PCSD saw increases in our school lunch participation across all grade levels from prior years.

“This has been a good thing for our meal program and families alike. Even though there was/is never any overt identification of our Free and Reduced population in the cafeteria, there has always been a perceived stigma associated with applying for the benefit. The waiver has allowed all students to eat free and my hope is that doing so helped reduce some of the reasons why families don’t apply. I also believe that offering universal free meals, has brought more potential long-term customers to the table. School lunch is often given negative marks for quality, but the waiver has allowed customers to judge for themselves on the quality of our offerings without having to spend money. I hope the trend continues,” said Hopkins.

Although free lunches are offered to all students and are completely separate from the Free and Reduced program of which PCSD has a rate of 20% of its population participate, families are still encouraged to get their applications in for the Free and Reduced program. Qualifying for the program offers other benefits besides meals like fee waivers and cost reductions in other sports, extracurricular, and community programs. In addition, some federal and state funding is driven by the percentage of qualified students in the district.

Applications can be found in the school offices and at the district office.