Information to Parents Regarding SY 22-23 School Meals
Dear NCOE Families,
Child nutrition programs have been essential throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring kids continued to get the nutrition they need. We understand the coming school year will be a significant transition for families as we return to pre-pandemic meal programs with paid, free, and reduced-priced eligibilities for students.
Schools had federal flexibilities during COVID so they could serve all kids free meals. Some of those options expired, so we can no longer serve all meals free anymore. Instead, families will do what they did before COVID. Schools will take applications and use family income to qualify kids for free, reduce-price, or paid meals. Your child’s school will have applications for eligibility available and sent home to students. The 2022-2023 school year paid meal prices are: lunch $3.05 and breakfast $1.25.
Schools are also facing the same challenges many grocery stores and other places are having with getting all the food and supplies they need. When this happens, school nutrition professionals are doing everything they can to serve healthy meals to your child. Sometimes that means needing to swap out some foods for others because some foods are easier to get. Please be patient with the school nutrition professionals striving to serve our kids. They are committed to making sure our kids get the healthy meals they depend on.
School meals must meet strong nutrition standards, and we are continuing to work hard to serve students the nutritious, delicious meals they need to learn and grow.