SMITHFIELD – At the beginning of the 2023-2024 academic year, 43 Johnston County Public Schools qualified for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).
Through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Food and Nutrition Service, CEP provides free breakfast and lunch to every student, without families being required to fill out a meal benefits application.
The overall purpose of the CEP is to improve access to nutritious meals for students in high poverty areas by providing breakfast and lunch to every student at no cost to the household. A district becomes eligible for CEP if 40% or more of students in a district are already certified to eat for free without filling out an application.
Households spend at least $1,800 each school year preparing a packed lunch for their student. By providing these free meals, families will benefit economically and spend less time preparing meals.
“Any time you can give a kid breakfast to start their day, you’re giving them a great start and a great platform for which to learn,” stated Tami Poland, principal of Polenta Elementary. According to data, healthy breakfast impacts a student’s academic performance substantially. Studies show that having a healthy breakfast decreases tardiness, absenteeism, and behavior related issues. Studies reveal that there is also a direct correlation to a student’s overall academic performance increases, as well as test scores.
Students who pack a lunch can supplement their meal with the 3 for Free program, which gives them the opportunity to select a milk, grain, fruit and/or vegetable to go along with their packed meal. This option affords all students the opportunity to have nutritious meal options.
“The key to the success of this program is to have an increase in participation county-wide at breakfast and lunch,” JCPS Director of School Nutrition Services Jennifer Lawson said. “I encourage all households to skip the lunchbox and let us help you save time and money this school year by encouraging your child to enjoy breakfast and lunch with us.”
JCPS encourages parents of qualifying sites to have their students participate in the new, free meal program and enjoy the benefits of good food options and increased academic achievement.
The fact that parents are sending their children to school on empty stomachs should be the real concern here. Let’s address this problem at the root.
Every school should have food available – free of charge – to the students and staff. Eliminate the stigma of free or reduced lunches. There are so many food-insecure families and no child should go to school hungry. It’s not the child’s fault.
It’s not about fault, it’s about responsibility. Whose is it?
I save the govt thousands every year by homeschooling. Where’s our hundreds of free meals?
@Jimmy: Spoken like a true Socialst snowflake… always wanting more and more from the government.
I do too but I don’t want the government giving me anything cause it always comes with strings attached. I don’t want to deal with more regulation and government strings.
Those responses were dumber and more tone deaf than i could have ever imagined would manifest. Go. Read, pray, beg God for wisdom come back and try reading what I wrote w context in mind.
More govermment Socialism, plain & simple!
This is the correct take! It starts with free lunch…. then free college tuition… then free universal healthcare… then free retirement! The number of SOCIALIST Libs who actually endorse this grooming idea is mind boggling. I guess JoCo is a lot less red than I thought!