Lunches for 22,000 students in district at no cost to students
TOLEDO – There’s no need for families to send lunch money this year for K-12 students attending Toledo Public Schools, regardless of household income.
The reason? State officials have approved a district-wide application for free lunches, according to Carrie Kolodziejczyk, TPS senior director of food service and child nutrition.
The national school lunch program started in 1946 and is under the administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Only a handful of states across the country currently make arrangements for all school meals to be free: Michigan is among them, but Ohio is not.
The Associated Press explained in a 2023 news report that free meals at school was common during in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the federal aid supporting universal school meals ended in spring 2022.
Afterwards, most states reverted to the system used for decades in which families who wanted the assistance had to file an application every year requesting free or reduced-price meals for their students.
Under USDA income guidelines for the 2024-25 school year, a family with three in the household would be eligible for free school meals with a total annual income of $33,566 or less. That same family would be eligible for reduced-price school lunches with a total annual income of $47,767 or less.
Ohio officials decided to allow any student who otherwise qualified for reduced price school meals to get breakfast and lunch for free, starting with the 2023-24 school year. The cost is supported through the state budget bill.
Kolodziejczyk said 78 percent of TPS students were eligible for free school breakfast and lunch with last year’s update. At the time, a K-12 breakfast cost $1.50, and a K-12 lunch cost $3.25.
What happened this year was one more step, and one where TPS staff had to be proactive in getting the assistance. There was quite a bit of paperwork and documentation involved with the application, she said.
But now, every basic meal is at no cost to all students.
“We were just pleased to be able to get it through this year,” she said.
The cafeteria a la carte items will cost money out of pocket, but those examples are situations where a student might want a second slice of pizza, an additional sandwich, or to buy a snack.
There are just under 22,000 students in the district. Kolodziejczyk said about 30-45 percent of students get a school breakfast, and about 65-75 percent get a school lunch.
The other students prefer to pack their own meals, sometimes for allergy reasons and dietary preferences.
For example, Kolodziejczyk said while meatless entrees are easily available in the school lunchrooms, specifically vegan meals often are not.
“We also don’t have a halal solution at this time,” she said, referring to Islamic dietary guidelines.
In the meantime, the district updated student menu entrees after a study group of both staff and parents considered the options.
New menu items for grade schoolers include macaroni and cheese, and new menu items for high schoolers include walking tacos and sandwich wraps.
