CALDWELL, Idaho — It's back-to-school week for many Canyon County districts, and the Caldwell School District is busy preparing to welcome students for the new school year.
As families prepare for the new school year, the Caldwell School District is working to ensure a long-running program continues to support students with a vital resource.
"It's a program under the national school lunch program that allows eligible schools or districts in our case to provide free breakfast and lunch to students everyday," said Nathaly Gibson, Child Nutrition Director for the Caldwell School District.
SEE HERE: Learn more about how the program helps Caldwell School District
Usually, the Community Eligibility Provision program provides meals to eligible students, but in the Caldwell School District, it's available to every student at every school.
"Our district all of our schools qualify," Gibson said.
Gibson tells me this program also helps in other ways.
"It just makes every student equal. That's a big part of our program. All of the students are treated equally, there is not stigma around who's receiving free or who's paid. All of the students receive free meals regardless of household income because we are operating under CEP," Gibson said.
The district also emphasized that the program gives families some relief, knowing their children are provided with two healthy meals a day at school, allowing them to use that money for meals at home.
"Our kitchens operate off of offer versus serve international school lunch program, so that means that the students have options to pick and choose what they want in their tray," Gibson added.
"The only thing that is required is a half cup of fruit or vegetable. Whether or not the students take it, it is nice that the students have that consistent exposure so that they could potentially take it in the future."
Gibson tells me that while there are guidelines, the district still finds ways to make meals fun and tasty.
"We are still gonna have posole this year. It's definitely a favorite. The students and the teachers, all of the faculty, really, they all really enjoy when we do serve that... And we received the fresh fruit and vegetable grant program this year for all of our elementary schools and our qualifying middle school, trying to bring back what the students enjoy, trying to switch out what they don't enjoy, and every year we are just hoping for more and more participation," Gibson said.
While the Nutrition Director says there's still work to do before the school year starts, the team is excited to welcome students back with their favorite school meals.
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