Across Ohio, families, educators, and kids are heading back to their classrooms for another year of learning. Unfortunately, in Ohio, as many as 500,000 children are facing food insecurity. For these students, a healthy meal is the most important school supply – as important to their learning as a new notebook and pencils. With the high costs of food, fuel, and other essentials, many hardworking families are struggling to make ends meet. School meals programs help take some of the burden off of these families, making sure kids are able to access nutritious meals every day.
Why School Meals Matter
In a sentence? School meals are a healthy, convenient, and inclusive way to ensure students have the nutrition they need to thrive in the classroom and beyond.
- Healthy: School meals conform to nutritional guidelines, making sure that kids are getting the fruits, veggies, and proteins they need to grow and be healthy. In fact, Research shows that for many children, the meals they eat at school are the most nutritionally balanced meals they get all day.
- Convenient: School meals can save busy parents the work of having to prepare breakfast and lunch each morning.
- Inclusive: School meals help create a sense of community, by bringing together peers and trusted adults, like teachers. They play a role in building equity in the school, making sure kids can focus on their classwork and on just being kids. And school meals are available to ALL children, regardless of immigration status.
School Meal Applications and CEP
In most districts, families must complete and submit applications to determine their eligibility for free or reduced price meals. Even schools that offer no-cost meals for all students (for example, through the Community Eligibility Provision) may require families to complete applications. Applications for free and reduced price meals are also one of the primary ways to determine eligibility for Summer EBT — a grocery-buying benefit for families during the summer. School meals applications may also qualify families for additional benefits, like discounted exam fees and college applications, extracurriculars, scholarship opportunities, and even home wifi. They can also help your child’s school secure additional classroom resources that will support all students’ education.
If you have school aged children, be sure to fill out an application for free or reduced price meals this school year! Spread the word, too, and encourage your friends and family to contact their children’s school to learn more. Work at a school district and want to spread the word about meal applications? Check out our Outreach Toolkit for social media graphics, newsletter blurbs, and more – in both English and Spanish. For Community Eligibility Provision districts, check out our CEP Communications Toolkit for tips in English and Spanish on communicating to students, families, and teachers about the program. Making sure to spread the word about CEP is crucial to your program’s success!
No Kid Hungry Ohio is working to ensure every child in Ohio can access the healthy school meals they need to grow up healthy and strong. We do this through providing grants to launch and improve school meals programs; advocating for smart state and federal school meals policies; building awareness; and offering tools, resources, and training to help build and maintain successful school meals programs. Looking for assistance? Check out our Resources page, or reach out to aroudebush@strength.org.