Breakfast/Lunch Access

about access in the Healthy Schools Act

School breakfast and school lunch are critical, proven ways to reduce hunger and improve wellness among school-age children. But numerous obstacles can prevent children from eating school meals — obstacles like schools serving breakfast before the school day actually begins; children feeling a stigma that school meals are just for poor kids; or children needing to pay a co-payment for breakfast and lunch that their families cannot afford.

That’s why schools must make sure all students have access to breakfast and lunch.

The Healthy Schools Act includes important provisions that expand access to school meals in D.C. Public Schools and public charter schools – and will help ensure that all children benefit from breakfast and lunch.

Increasing participation in school meals not only reduces childhood hunger, but also improves children’s diets (pdf). Research (pdf) indicates that school meal participants are less likely to consume “competitive foods” at school, less likely to have nutrient inadequacies, and more likely to consume fruit, vegetables, and milk at breakfast and lunch. In addition, school meals may be the most effective tool for combating obesity in poor children.

Learn how the Children of Center City Charter School are benefitting from breakfast and the support of the Walmart Foundation:

put the Act into action!

To comply with the access sections of Title II of the Healthy Schools Act, your school must:

1. Make breakfast free to all DCPS and public charter school students. This provision means that thousands more children will receive a free nutritious morning meal at school. Free breakfast supports families living on very tight budgets who cannot afford to provide good breakfasts at home every day nor the money to buy them at school. And many other families benefit from school breakfast for other reasons.

To support implementation (pdf) of this requirement, public charter schools that comply with all of Sections 202 and 203 in Title II of the Act will receive: 30 cents extra for each breakfast served to students who qualify for reduced-price meals; and, in severe-needs schools (as defined by USDA), the difference between the free and paid rates for breakfasts served to students who do not qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

2. Serve free breakfast through “alternative serving models” (pdf) after the school day begins. Elementary schools where 40% or more of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals must serve breakfast in the classroom. And middle and high schools where more than 40% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals must serve breakfast either in the classroom, or through another alternative like “grab and go” carts.

These innovative breakfast serving models make breakfast truly accessible – after the school day begins, and in a location, like the classroom, where all students are able to eat. Far too many students miss out on breakfast when it is served in the cafeteria, before the school day begins.

Schools across the country are finding that breakfast in the classroom and other delivery innovations are the best ways to bring the benefits of school breakfast to all students.

To support implementation (pdf) of this requirement, DCPS and public charter schools that comply with all of Sections 202 and 203 in Title II of the Act will receive $7 per student (only in 2010-11) to launch breakfast in the classroom and other alternative service models. Note: this funding applies only to schools where 40% or more of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

3. Remove the co-payment for reduced-price lunch. Children living in households with incomes between 130% and 185% of the federal poverty level will no longer have to pay a co-payment for reduced-price lunch.

Before the Healthy Schools Act, D.C. Public Schools charged 20 cents and charter schools charged up to 40 cents for reduced-price lunch. For a family with two children earning just $33,900 a year, the co-payment for school lunch could add up to $360 over the course of a school year. Low-income families struggling with fixed costs for food, rent, utilities, transportation, and child care often do not have spare money for co-payments. And when schools charge interests on student accounts or deny children a meal when their accounts maintain a balance, this co-payment can constitute a serious hardship.

To support implementation (pdf) of this requirement, DCPS and public charter schools that comply with all of Sections 202 and 203 in Title II of the Act will receive 40¢ extra for each lunch served to students who qualify for reduced-price meals.