California’s state meal mandate recently expanded to include both breakfast and lunch free of charge for all students in transitional kindergarten through the 12th grade.
The California Department of Education’s latest mandate requires public school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to serve meals each school day, regardless of a student’s free or reduced-price meal eligibility.
Maggie Arndt, a student at Lewis Flamson Junior High School in Paso Robles, says her parents used to pay for her meals.
“It makes me feel happy that my parents are not spending so much money because I used to get snacks and lunch like every single day,” said Arndt. “It makes me feel better about myself.”
Other students in the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District say this mandate is helping many students and families that have been financially impacted.
“I think it’s really nice,” said Arndt. “I think it’s considerate for those who may not be able to afford it and have food at their house.’
“As a student, it makes me feel really happy since there are different families where many different situations, say some families can't afford certain meals, then other families,” said Hillary Ruiz, a Paso Robles High School student. “Everyone's different in their own ways and everyone goes through different things. And I am super glad that here at Paso High School we have free lunch for everyone.”
According to the California Department of Education, in the 2022 to 2023 school year, California became the first state to implement a statewide universal meals program for children.
Jessie Wesch, the director of food service at the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District says parents still need to fill out an income form or parent data confirmation through their school’s Aeries portal so that the district knows how much funding they can apply for or receive.
She mentioned that the food services department received over $250,000 in funding from the state to help support meals made from scratch and to purchase new equipment for their kitchens.
“What that means is it's allowing us to provide training for staff and enhance our ingredients by choosing quality products and making our school meals shine. But also to help with infrastructure of purchasing new equipment, better equipment that's outdated and this is solely for the purposes of the Food Services Department. Unfortunately, we can't use another department, but I'm really excited about the opportunity that we have to make every child nourished and ready to learn.”
Wesh says that the district gets reimbursed by the state and federal government every time a student eats.
She says children will be served fresh fruits and vegetables.
Plus, the Food Service Department works with local vendors like Etto Pasta, Edna’s Bakery, and Brian’s Bread to provide local ingredients in their meals.
“It's pretty amazing,” said Colby Vock, a Paso Robles High School student. “The food's good. It's an easy process and I mean, the lines are full every day. People are. I just see people smiling and stuff. It's it's like it's a good system.”
For more information on California Universal Meals, click here.
