Ark City USD 470 will have access to free breakfast and lunch for students starting Thursday.
According to a news release from the school district Wednesday, all students in USD 470 will have access to free meals at school for the remainder of the school year and is made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision, which allows all students in a school district to receive free food without applying if a certain percentage of students are in households that use particular income-based federal assistance programs.
In late September, USDA made a rule change to CEP lowering that percentage from 40 percent to 25 percent. The rule went into effect in late October.
“This initiative reflects USD 470’s commitment to the well-being of our students and the community at large,” USD 470 Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations William Pfannenstiel said. “We are excited about the positive impact this program will have on our students’ lives and look forward to seeing what we think will be many benefits.”
With this program, every USD 470 student is eligible to receive one free breakfast and one free lunch per day.
Any additional meal or a la carte menu items will be offered at full price.
“Recognizing the challenges that families and students may face, the district is excited to eliminate the financial burden associated with daily meals,” the news release said. “This decision is aligned with the district’s mission to ensure all students learn and thrive in safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments.”
Pfannenstiel said the addition of Ark City to the USDA program eliminates hunger as a hurdle to students’ educational goals.
“We believe that no student should ever have to worry about where their next meal is coming from,” he said. “By offering free breakfast and lunch, we aim to create a supportive and nourishing environment that enables our students to focus on their education without the added stress of meal costs.”
The Community Eligibility Provision is a non-pricing meal service option for schools and school districts in low-income areas that was authorized by the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act signed by President Barrack Obama.
It passed the House of Representatives easily, 264-157 and passed the U.S. Senate on a voice vote, however, it didn’t receive local support at the time.
Then-U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a Republican who represented Kansas’ 4th District in the House, which included Cowley County, voted against.
Sen. Jerry Moran, a fellow Republican, also voted against when he was a congressman for Kansas’ 1st District. Lynn Jenkins, another GOP member in the House at the time, who represented the state’s 2nd District, also voted no.
The late Dennis Moore, an Anthony native who represented Kansas’ 3rd District in Congress as a Democrat, was the only Sunflower State yes vote in the House.
According to USD 470, CEP allows the nation’s highest-poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications.
Instead, schools that adopt 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).
