Free meals for all students
Because many of our families struggle economically, the City School District of Albany participates in a federal program that allows all students to receive breakfast and lunch for free each day.
The program is known as the Community Eligibility Provision of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.
All district students can receive a healthy “complete” breakfast and “complete” lunch at their school at no charge on school days throughout the school year. Any extra items such as an extra entrée or extra milk will continue to be an additional cost.
Your child can participate in the program without having to pay a fee or fill out a form. However, he or she will be assigned a number the first week of school (see below) and will need to enter that number for each meal.
Specific federal guidelines determine a complete meal. Several food options – meat/meat alternative, milk, fruit, vegetable and grain – are offered at each meal. Each student’s meal must consist of a certain number of these foods to be considered complete. Also, at breakfast a student must take a fruit offering and at lunch a student must take a fruit, vegetable or both for the meal to be considered complete.
Food Service staff people in each school will have identification numbers for each student that will be provided the first week of school. If your child gets to the register and forgets or doesn’t have a number, he or she can give their name to a staff member who will look it up.
Yes. We are required to account for the number of meals served and verify that every child participating received a complete meal. If you help your child memorize his or her lunch number, you will help us keep serving lines running smoothly.
