POTEAU, Okla. — Poteau Public Schools announced on July 1 that all students in pre-K to 8th grade will receive free breakfast and lunch for the next four years.
The district applied for the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Community Eligibility Provision program (CEP) and was approved, Poteau schools said in a post on Facebook. The district was on the program for as long as anyone could remember until two years ago when they didn't qualify.
"Being off of it the last two years, it's been tough," Superintendent Scott Kempenich said. "We had our debt up to about $65,000 on unpaid lunch bills. That's why getting it back is such a big deal."
CEP is a non-pricing meal service option for schools and school districts in low-income areas, according to the USDA.
Under the CEP program, districts don't have to collect household applications and instead are reimbursed based on the percentage of students eligible for other programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families).
"[Families] might not be strong in the financial area, might have single parents, or might have some unique situations," Kempenich said. "Knowing that money that they'd be spending on breakfast and lunches for their children, they can [now] keep that in their pocket and use it in other areas. It's going to be something that's really important to our local community and our parents."
Poteau Public Schools said high school students will still have to pay for meals and those applications will be available mid-July for the next school year.
Breakfast is $2 while lunch is $2.75.
For students with an unpaid lunch bill, the district says you are still responsible for paying that balance.
Oklahoma is the fifth most food insecure state, and over one in four kids in LeFlore County are food insecure, according to the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma.
"Food insecurity is being hungry and not knowing where that next meal is going to come from," said Matt Jostes, the Food Bank's chief development officer. "If you have a kid that's coming to school and does not have food, that's all they're thinking about. They're hungry and they're not able to learn."
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.