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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Chilton County Schools announced on July 10 that all students will receive free breakfast and lunch for the entire 2024-2025 school year. The CCS Child Nutrition Program announced that students and parents will not be required to complete any extra paperwork or free/reduced lunch forms in order to receive the free food. When around 8,000 students in the CCS district return to school, they will all receive free meals throughout the year.

The free lunches were made possible after the school district qualified for a federal program called Community Eligibility Provision. The program is a non-pricing meal service option available for school districts in low-income areas. This allows those districts to serve breakfast and lunch to students at no cost, and without collecting household applications. Instead, the school district will be reimbursed for the number of meals they serve, and for the utility costs to prepare them.

Eligibility for the CEP program is based on percentages of how many students get or qualify for free and reduced lunches. CCS Child Nutrition Program Director Tasha Hayes brought the idea for the CEP program to CCS Superintendent Corey Clements, and considering the rising food costs nowadays, he thought getting the program into the schools was extremely important.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, CCS was providing free meals to students through COVID recovery programs. However, a large number of those were shut down after the pandemic, forcing the school system to not be able to provide free meals for students for a few years.

Now, with Hayes leading the way to secure the CEP program, free lunches for all students are back for the 2024-2025 school year.

Clements and CCS Child Nutrition Program department plan to apply for the CEP program each year it is available and the school system meets the requirements to keep free food available in schools across Chilton County.