BUFFALO, N.Y. — Thanks to a federal funding program, all schools in the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Union Free School District will get breakfast and lunch for free next school year.
The free meals will start during summer school. It's made available through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). This past school year, only five of the district's schools got free meals. Now all 10 will get it.
"Starting July 1, every school in our Ken-Ton school community will get free breakfast and lunch in all our schools," said Kim Roll, food service director for the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda Union Free School District.
She added, "So our students will have access to a nutritious and delicious breakfast and lunch every school day."
When you do the math, breakfast is $1.50. Lunch is $2.25; that's per student. If you multiply it by the number of school days (180), parents could save $675 a school year for one child.
"We're helping the parents stretch their grocery budget, so they know they can spend their money more on healthier dinner or snack choices. There will be income worksheets coming out in September because we still need to gather that information. It's not for the school but we can continue to get the grade funding for extra programs in the schools," Roll says.
If you remember, Springville Griffith Institute announced they're doing the same in March. However, it's not through the CEP.
The Community Eligibility Provision is a federal program serving all children free meals for four school years. It's aimed at lower-income families. The school needed 40% of its student's families to receive government assistance to qualify.
Roll says the district's percentage was at 42.
"We get the students in, and we're able to offer them a nutritious breakfast so they're not hungry and not having headaches and stomach aches," Roll said.