Log in

SCHOOL MEALS

No-cost meals coming to four SUSD schools next school year

Posted 5/28/24

Scottsdale Unified School District will be able to offer a new meal service option at four schools next school year that will streamline the process for families to secure no-cost breakfasts and …

You must be a member to read this story.

Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.


Already have an account? Log in to continue.

Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here

Otherwise, follow the link below to join.

To Our Valued Readers –

Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.

For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.

Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.

Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.

Sincerely,
Charlene Bisson, Publisher, Independent Newsmedia

Please log in to continue

Log in
I am anchor
SCHOOL MEALS

No-cost meals coming to four SUSD schools next school year

Posted

Scottsdale Unified School District will be able to offer a new meal service option at four schools next school year that will streamline the process for families to secure no-cost breakfasts and lunches for their students.

Updates to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) portion of the federal National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs will eliminate the need for Hohokam and Yavapai Elementary, Tonalea Middle and Coronado High School families to apply and qualify their students for free meals, based on participation in specific, means-tested government assistance programs, according to a press release. The Community Eligibility Provision is part of the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The new program at the four district schools begins in August, when school convenes for the 2024-2025 academic year.

“We are thrilled to be able to add the CEP to the list of food service programs we offer,” Scootsdale Unified School District Nutrition Services Director Patti Bilbrey said in the release. “Implementing CEP at these four, qualifying school sites allows our students to have access to no-charge, high-quality, healthy breakfasts and lunches each and every day of the school year.”

A recent change by the Arizona Department of Education, allowing Medicaid participation to directly certify students, has made it possible for the four schools to now meet the CEP participation threshold.

Based on the new rules, all students at the four schools – approximately 2,000, based on current enrollments – will receive nutritious breakfasts and lunches each school day next school year at no charge.

“We know that kids who aren’t hungry at school learn better,” Bilbrey said in the release. “Making sure that they aren’t permits them to be full participants in their education. Every student, regardless of their family’s income, deserves a hunger-free education.”