Gloucester schools announce free meals program
About 22,000 children are packing up the summer and packing bookbags this morning to head back to school in Hartford and now every student will be able to receive free breakfast and lunch every school day.
Hartford joins several other high-poverty school systems in Connecticut, including New Haven, Waterbury and New London, that have taken advantage of a relatively new federal initiative that aims to cut down on administrative paperwork for local districts while boosting the number of students in the national school lunch program. For families of students at qualifying schools no further action is required, according to a news release.
But on the lunch line, students weren’t pulling out their money, just their student IDs, because the entire meal was free. For information about the Community Eligibility Program please contact Jenny Montague at 406-751-3646.
To apply for free or reduced price meals, households must only fill out one application per home and return it to the school division. Application forms will be available on the district website.
USDA said the breakfast program has historically targeted low-income areas, but said the lunch program has increasingly had the same mission, and that both programs are used overwhelmingly to help the most needy people. At any time during the school year, program officials may verify an application.
There is a lot more going on in Hartford schools this year. This may be done by calling or writing to: Mark Flatau, Superintendent, 233 1st Ave East, Kalispell, MT 59901.