All HISD students eligible for 3 free meals

Program that helps feed kids in low-income areas now covers every campus in the district

All students in Houston ISD can receive up to three free meals per school day in 2018-19, the second straight year that families will not have to pay for breakfast, lunch or dinner, district officials announced Monday.

All of HISD’s 280-plus schools now qualify under a U.S. Department of Agriculture program designed to provide free meals to districts and campuses in low-income areas, district officials said. About 190 campuses qualified last year, but the district received additional waivers and support tied to Hurricane Harvey to ensure students received three free meals all year.

“We are committed to providing students with as many opportunities as possible for them to get complete, healthy meals,” HISD Nutrition Services Officer Betti Wiggins said in a statement. “This program expansion allows us to remove a roadblock to that access for many of our students. It also allows us to grow our program in a way that help us to better serve our students.”

The USDA program is known as the Community Eligibility Provision, which allows schools to serve no-cost lunch to all students at campuses. Schools using the CEP are reimbursed by the federal government for food spending based on participation of families in other governance-assistance programs.

HISD this year crossed a threshold by which the entire district qualifies for the CEP, Wiggins said. About 87 percent of students were eligible for free meals through CEP last year.

Although the remaining 13 percent of students come from higher-income households, Wiggins said, the federal government will reimburse for meals at a higher rate (about $3.35) than HISD families were paying out of pocket ($2.50). As a result, HISD hopes to see a revenue increase, with any additional dollars invested in providing higher quality food, Wiggins said.

“Parents everywhere are asking us for better food to put on their children’s plate, and the only way you can do that is with money,”

Wiggins said.

The district will still provide à la carte items for purchase that will not be covered under the CEP.

About 190 out of 600 eligible Texas school districts participated in the CEP last year, according to Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Food Research & Action Center.

As a result of the change, HISD families will no longer fill out applications for free and reduced-price meals. Instead, they will complete a “socioeconomic information form” that will be used to determine the percentage of students at each school who meet certain income thresholds. The data contribute to determinations about federal funding and state academic accountability ratings, among many other areas.

About 75 percent of HISD’s 214,175 students qualified for federal free or reduced-price meals in 2017-18. The threshold to qualify in 2018-19 is a household income of $46,435 for a family of four.

The “socioeconomic information forms” will be given to parents at various times, including back-toschool events, district officials said.

HISD has provided free breakfast to all students since 2009, and it serves free dinner to students at 178 schools. Repeated studies have shown students who routinely do not eat breakfast perform better academically and socially when they are later provided free breakfast at school.

HISD’s school year begins Aug. 27.