Mid-Del school students will receive free breakfast and lunch next school year. Here's how
The Mid-Del school district will join a handful of other metro-area districts in offering all students free breakfast and lunch during the 2024-25 school year, ending the need for parents to submit applications to participate in a free and reduced-meal program.
The Mid-Del board voted Monday on the policy change, which was made possible by changes to the federal program that provides funding for school nutrition programs, said Devyn Johnson, the district’s director of child nutrition.
The Mid-Del district — with about 13,000 students spread over 13 elementary schools, three middle schools and three high schools — is one of the largest in the Oklahoma City area that will provide district-wide free meals. Other districts that already do so include Oklahoma City, Putnam City, Shawnee, Western Heights and Millwood.
“It’s nice to know that for our 13,000 students, at the end of every school day, they’ve had the opportunity to eat two meals before they get home,” Johnson said. “It’s the best thing we can do for them.
“We know that some of our students struggle with having no ability to eat at home, and they rely on school meals as the only meals of the week. This is one less thing that (parents) have to worry about when their kids go to school. They can know they ate today.”
More: Tribe joins summer food program, expanding eligibility for thousands of Oklahoma kids
The Mid-Del district, which serves Del City, Midwest City and parts of Oklahoma City, is a high-poverty district, with 70% of students qualifying for free- and reduced-price meals through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service.
Johnson said that when she began working for the district in December 2022, four Mid-Del school sites were using the Food and Nutrition Service’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), an option for schools and school districts in low-income areas. According to the federal agency, the CEP allows high-poverty schools and districts to serve free breakfast and lunch to all enrolled students without collecting household applications.
Schools using the CEP are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students categorically eligible for free meals based on their participation in other specific means-tested programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
In 2023, the USDA lowered the threshold for schools to qualify for extra reimbursements through the CEP. It also now allows children on Medicaid to automatically qualify for free and reduced-price meals. The latter change allows for schools and districts to receive more opportunities for funding.
Johnson said Mid-Del wanted to be fiscally responsible “and see what we could reasonably do” to add more of its schools to the CEP. She said this year, the way the reimbursements through the CEP are handled, the district is able to be reimbursed for meals for 95% of its students.
“In the eyes of the state, 95 percent of students will be counted as free students,” Johnson said, “and we can easily cover that five percent.
“I have gotten a lot of feedback like, ‘I wish this was done sooner.’ I do, too. But we have to look at the program as a whole, and I’d hate for us to push for something and cut back on quality on the food. This year, we don’t have any worries about that. This is the best-case scenario for every student in the district.”
Other districts also use the CEP to provide free meals for students
The largest Oklahoma City-area districts using the CEP is Oklahoma City Public Schools, which has provided free meals to students since at least 2020.
“We fed families throughout the pandemic and will be able to offer summer meals to ages 1-18 at select school sites throughout the month of June,” district spokeswoman Crystal Raymond said.
The Putnam City district has offered free meals for all students during the 2023-24 school year by using the CEP, district spokesman A.J. Graffeo said. For the previous three years, the district offered free meals to its elementary school and middle school students. Graffeo said Putnam City plans to continue with the district-wide free meals for the 2024-25 school year.
Shawnee spokeswoman Cherity Pennington said that district has offered district-wide free meals during this school year. She said about 86.1% of the district's students meet the CEP qualifications and the district covers the remaining balance out of its general fund.
Chris Culver, a spokesman for Western Heights in southwest Oklahoma City, and Cecilia Robinson-Woods, the superintendent of Millwood in northeast Oklahoma City, also confirmed their districts feed all students using the CEP.
Other districts, including Moore, Norman and Stillwater, used federal pandemic relief funds — which expire at the end of the current school year — in the past to provide district-wide free meals for students, but no longer do so.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Mid-Del joins other OKC-area districts in providing free student meals
