CCSD extends free meals for all students through 2025
The Clark County School District announced Tuesday it will offer free meals to all students through the 2024-25 school year.
The offering is through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision, which serves schools and school districts with a high poverty rate.
Previously, more than 290 Clark County School District campuses participated. Now, the expansion will include all students, and parents don’t have to fill out an application.
“Access to nutritious meals is vital to student success in the classroom,” Superintendent Jesus Jara said in a news release. “Providing free meals to all students districtwide is another step toward ensuring equity so that students can focus on learning and not where their next meal will come from.”
The district, which has more than 304,000 students, already is providing free meals to all students this school year through a federal waiver.
As of June 30, about 75 percent of the district’s students qualified for free or reduced-price school meals — up more than 6 percent since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the district said.
The school district’s announcement Tuesday coincides with National School Lunch Week. The school district plans to provide more than a million school meals to students this week, according to the release.
Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.