School district jumpstarts free lunch pilot program

The Bonneville Joint School District No. 93 will implement a pilot program that will give all students enrolled in Falls Valley Elementary and Telford Academy breakfast and lunch at no charge.

“They won’t have to worry about ‘Oh, how I’m hungry today; I didn’t get breakfast’ or ‘I didn’t get lunch because my parents couldn’t afford it or send me with anything,'” said Falls Valley Principal Steven Cziep. “Those kind of worries are out the window, now our kids can focus on academics.”

This Community Eligibility Provision is offered under the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. The provision provides an alternative to household applications for free and reduced priced meals in high-poverty schools.

The two schools will do away with free and reduced applications and rely on the provision under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“As this program came about and we researched it, we could see that it would be a benefit for the families and the children and for us with the reduction in paperwork,” said the district’s food services manager Heather Plain.

The schools will participate in the program for the entire 2014 – 2015 school year. Thereafter, the district will decide whether it will continue with the program and its expansion possibilities.