Clover Park School District has received approval to provide free meals to all students for the 2023-24 school year—this includes breakfast and lunch. Families do not need to complete a Free/Reduced School Meal Application this school year for eligibility.
“We are pleased to receive approval for all of our CPSD schools to participate in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and provide nutritious meals for our students free of charge,” said Superintendent Ron Banner. “Food insecurity impacts many students and families in our area. By removing this barrier, we are ensuring students will start the school day with the energy needed to focus on learning.”
Although families are no longer required to submit a Free/Reduced Lunch Application to be eligible for free meals, families will receive a Family Income Survey on Aug. 28 to be completed for their household. Many state and federal programs and grants are based on the information collected from eligibility applications. This additional funding provides educational resources and support to meet student needs.
Completing this survey allows for the school district to collect this necessary government funding, and it ensures eligible students can receive a reduction in fees for academic and extracurricular activities.
For questions or additional guidance, please contact CPSD Student Nutrition by calling 253-583-5490.
My question is, whether the middle and high schools will offer ala carte? Immediately after the pandemic when the meals were free, they were not very fulfilling for high school age kids. My son as well as many of his athlete friends, had to supplement with items brought from home. This of course negated the idea of free lunches. The normal ala carte offerings did not reopen after return from the pandemic.
They’re not free. Stop saying that.
Indeed “tax payer funded” should replace “free” whenever a government handout is provided.
All children deserve to eat.
That’s what they have parents and families for. At what point does government overreach stop dividing children from parental responsibilities?
As a point of clarification, the program is free to all students, which means the students will not pay for the meals. Thank you for the feedback regarding the importance of stressing that public school programs and resources are taxpayer-funded. Public schools are funded by state and government funding paid for by taxpayers and local levies which are funded by property taxes paid by local taxpayers.
We take the responsibility of our fiscal stewardship very seriously and are implementing programs to support student learning, one of which is ensuring students have nutritious meals because it is hard to learn on an empty stomach. We greatly appreciate our community’s investment in our public schools, and our community’s partnership and support in providing a quality education for our community’s children.
So glad that this is happening. We as tax payers need to make sure all children have a full belly!
what happened to “Well to do parents, feeding their own children?” Not every one needs a handout. Especially at taxpayers expense..