FREE MEALS FOR ALL

Students in Newton don’t have to pay for lunch or breakfast this upcoming school year.

Newton Community School District announced Tuesday all students enrolled in the district for the 2021-22 school year will receive free breakfast and lunch for the second year in a row. The universal free meals are made available through the United States Department of Agriculture.

Cristy Croson, food service supervisor of the Newton school district, said the nationwide waivers operate under the USDA program, Seamless Summer Option (SSO), during the regular school year. All SSO meals will be served in all seven Newton campus buildings at no cost.

About 2,800 students in the Newton school district could benefit from this.

In order for the district to use the waivers, it must permit meals to be served outside of the typically-required group settings and meal times and waive meal pattern requirements as necessary. Croson said the free meals were also available during the pandemic last year.

“We had free meals and this year we had the option to sign up for the Seamless Summer Option program to get free meals again — so we went ahead and signed up for that,” Croson said. “We had great participation last year. They’re still able to buy extra à la carte-type items at the middle school and high school.”

Newton continues to encourage eligible families to fill out the free and reduced meal applications to be approved for a free or reduced registration fee waiver, or additional Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) benefits during the year.

To make sure families got the food they needed, the school district in March 2020 launched grab-n-go meals. Croson said Newton’s food services department serves about a half-million lunches, breakfasts and snacks each year. For the past 10 years, Newton has provided free summer meals to any who signed up.

“We’ve really liked the past two summers with the grab-n-go meals because we get a lot more participation,” Croson said. “A parent or guardian can pick up the meals and it’s three days worth of meals and breakfasts and some snacks each pickup time. It’s really increased over the past two summers.”

As a reminder: all prior meal charges still need to be paid during the first 30 days of the 2021-22 school year.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com