At least three local school districts have expanded school breakfast and lunch for this school year, which has led to more students eating free school breakfast and lunch. Other districts reported earlier this school year they had expanded meals to more students.
While school meals have a reputation for being mediocre, there’s been a push in the last few years to make sure all the kids who need a healthy meal during the day have food they want to eat. During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, all schools qualified for free school lunches, but that qualification went away in the 2022-2023 school year.
School meals are held to U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, with a requirement to serve vegetables and protein in each meal.
At least two districts have started serving fresh salads and fruits, which the schools say are popular options.
Research shows that nutritious school meals help students pay more attention in school and helps improve their memories, key factors in good academic work. Some school principals say they know their meals are the only ones some of their students are able to eat that day and worry about holidays and weekends, when kids don’t have access to those meals.
A bill in the Ohio Legislature would expand free school meals for districts, allowing all students to access free school meals. Currently, local schools qualify for free breakfast or lunch based on poverty percentages or individual kids can qualify for free school meals. The bill, House Bill 97, would also prevent schools from throwing out food because a student couldn’t pay for the meal, refusing to feed a child as a form of punishment, or requiring a student to pay for meals using school chores.
Local school experience
This year, Beavercreek City Schools began serving breakfast in all their schools for the first time. District spokeswoman Beth Sizemore said last year, breakfast was available at Beavercreek High School, Ferguson Freshman Hall, Ankeney Middle School and Parkwood Elementary. Beavercreek served an average of 351 students per day.
“This year, breakfast is available at all schools and we serve an average of 696 students daily,” Sizemore said.
Tecumseh Local Schools in Clark County applied and qualified for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Program beginning this school year, said district superintendent Paula Crew, which permits high poverty school districts to offer breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students. Crew said about 45% of the district’s students meet the poverty requirements set by the rule, much higher than the requirement of 25%.
Crew said the district distributed surveys to see what kinds of meals students would like and updated menus based on the data. She said one idea that came from those surveys was a salad bar, as many students said they wanted fresh fruits and vegetables to be offered.
“The students enjoy the salad bar as evidenced by the increase of students who choose a school lunch instead of packing,” Crew said.
Fairborn Schools were able to provide more free meals this year, said Emmy Mitchell, child nutrition supervisor for the district. Mitchell said that expansion happened because the same CEP program was able to be added to the high school.
Springfield City Schools modified the way they served meals to be more of a community outreach, said Jenna Leinasars, spokeswoman for the district. Springfield served nearly 19,000 meals last summer and plans to do a similar effort this summer.
Dayton Public also updated their school meals at the beginning of the school year. While the district has always been able to serve all students free breakfast and lunch, the district says the expanded options, including salad bars, were more popular.
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