San Jacinto Unified School District today announced its policy for serving meals to its enrolled students under the National School Lunch / School Breakfast Programs for the 2024 – 2025 school year. All enrolled SJUSD students will be served breakfast and lunch at no charge at the following sites:

• Megan Cope Elementary
• San Jacinto Elementary
• Juan Bautista De Anza Elementary
• Headstart Preschool
• Jose Antonio Estudillo Elementary
• San Jacinto Leadership Academy
• Edward Hyatt World Language Academy
• Monte Vista Middle School
• Park Hill Elementary
• North Mountain Middle School
• Clayton A. Record Elementary
• Mountain Vide High School
• San Jacinto High School

For additional information, please contact: Nutrition Services at (951) 654-9371

In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity. Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language), should contact the responsible state or local agency that administers the program or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339. To file a program discrimination complaint, a Complainant should complete a Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form which can be obtained online at: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USDA-OASCR%20P-Complaint-Form-0508-0002-508-11-28-17Fax2Mail.pdf, from any USDA office, by calling (866) 632-9992, or by writing a letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant’s name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by:mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights 1400 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or 2. fax: (833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or 3. email: program.intake@usda.gov

The post National School Lunch/School Breakfast Programs for the 2024-2025 School Year appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

When California passed the landmark School Meals for All legislation in 2021, we became the first state in the nation to provide free breakfast and lunch for all K-12 students regardless of income. Since then, 26 states have introduced similar legislation in response to the end of federal pandemic emergency food assistance, rising inflation, and what has been called a “hunger cliff” for many kids. As school lunch debt is soaring across the nation, California has become a model for ensuring schools can provide nutritious breakfast and lunch for all students without accruing district debt and stigmatizing students whose families can’t afford to pay.

After the legislation passed, school districts throughout the state, including the Upland Unified School District, where I am the nutrition director, took stock of what we could do with the resources we had to feed all kids who wanted free breakfast and lunch every day. My district received a California Department of Food and Agriculture Farm-to-School grant to build a garden at every school and to develop more relationships with local farmers and bakeries to source locally grown and produced ingredients and foods.

With the help of the grant, we created new menus built around healthy, nutritious, fresh items and offered our students salad bars and seasonal fruit. We came up with appealing and fun options like make-your-own yogurt parfaits with fresh berries and tostadas. At the high school level, we serve plant-based Fiesta Bowls and have introduced kids to locally sourced edible flowers, microgreens, and watermelon radishes. After all, we live on the most fertile land in the nation and kids should have the opportunity to try and enjoy new ingredients.

Growing up in Russia, I spent summers at my aunt’s farm and vividly recall the joy of biting into a perfectly ripe piece of fruit and eating meals prepared with love and care from ingredients in the garden. I wanted to share that experience and love of quality, wholesome, and delicious food with our kids. A sun-ripened fruit grown with love by a local family-owned farm is bursting with flavor.

There’s a misconception that kids don’t like unfamiliar foods, but I know otherwise. Assuming that young people won’t try something new that happens to be good for them robs them of the opportunity to decide for themselves. Students in Upland Unified School District not only get to grow and taste their own food in our school gardens, they also get to taste new fruits and veggies through a Harvest of the Month program.

While basic sustenance is critical, showing children they are special and loved is just as important to their development. When I hire school nutrition staff, I look for individuals who share my passion and mission: people who go above and beyond to serve, nourish and cherish our students. Food is love, and we need to continue to prioritize serving healthy school food. Kids can’t learn if they are undernourished or are anxious about not knowing where their next meal is coming from.

By feeding our kids well, helping them develop a healthy and curious relationship with food from local farms, and ensuring that no child goes hungry, we give this generation a great start at a healthy, productive future.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various author’s articles on this Opinion piece or elsewhere online or in the newspaper where we have articles with the header “COLUMN/EDITORIAL & OPINION” do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints or official policies of the Publisher, Editor, Reporters or anybody else in the Staff of the Hemet and San Jacinto Chronicle Newspaper.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post We Need to Keep Free School Meals appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

PHOENIX (AP) — America’s schools say kids are hungry — just as pandemic-era benefit programs have lapsed. There is growing concern about the effects on kids’ ability to learn.

Congress temporarily made school meals free to all American schoolkids, but since that ended last fall, the need has only seemed to grow.

Soaring food prices are adding strains on families who are seeing reductions in multiple kinds of financial assistance. One federal program that ends this month had given nearly 30 million Americans extra food stamps during the pandemic.

School cafeterias typically don’t turn away a hungry kid, but debts for unpaid school meals have been rising — showing the level of need, and raising questions about how schools will keep feeding everyone, without federal money to do it. The neediest kids are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, as before the pandemic, but qualifying for those benefits requires applications that haven’t been necessary for several years.

“Programs that provide direct food assistance are hugely critical and we are going to see the effects of not having them over the next couple of months,” said Megan Curran, policy director for Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy.

In the last academic year, with nearly all schools back operating in person, the number of school meals served to students jumped dramatically, and was slightly higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to a report Thursday from the Food Research & Action Center. Already, it said, states now are reporting drops in the number of meals served.

More than 34 million people, including 9 million children, in the United States are food insecure, according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, meaning they lack consistent access to enough food for every person in their family to be healthy.

Children in such households are more likely to struggle academically and repeat grade levels, among other challenges, according to researchers.

For fourth-grader Fabian Aguirre, it’s hard to think about math equations when he’s sitting in class with a growling stomach.

When he arrives in the morning, Fabian eats breakfast served by the school in South Phoenix, but he can get hungry in the classes before lunch. On days he doesn’t eat at home first, even the meals offered by the school aren’t enough to keep him feeling full.

“It’s hard to focus in class when I’m hungry. Food helps me pay attention to what I’m learning,” said Fabian, 10.

At his school, V. H. Lassen Academy of Science and Nutrition, all students are eligible to receive free meals. The Roosevelt School District, where 80% of students are Hispanic and 12% are Black, covers the meals with aid from a federal program for low-income school communities.

To reach students who might be embarrassed about not having eaten at home, the school recently changed how it distributes free breakfast. Carts filled with prepackaged breakfast meals are rolled outside by the entrance to the school, instead of being kept in the cafeteria.

“We realized that a lot of our students were going straight to the playground and not going into the cafeteria to eat before school, from the 7 a.m. to 7:15 a.m. timeframe,” said Jessica Padilla, a sixth-grade math and science teacher.

While they lasted, the universal free meals addressed several concerns about student hunger. There was no paperwork involved. And kids who needed them didn’t have to worry about stigma because they were available to everyone. Some states including California are using state money to continue these programs, but most have gone back to charging all but the neediest kids for meals.

When the free meals for all came to an end, “families were left scrambling and confused,” National PTA President Anna King said. They weren’t prepared for the paperwork after two years without it — and many families with young kids had never filled them out.

It can be difficult for parents to ask for the help they need, said Jillien Meier, director of No Kid Hungry. Immigrant parents, she said, might also avoid filling out forms requesting free or reduced-price meals out of concern it could bring unwanted attention if they are in the U.S. illegally.

Teachers often are the ones to pick up on chronic hunger in students.

Martissa Moore, a teacher at Bainbridge Middle School in Bainbridge, Georgia, recalls a seventh-grade student who had his head on his desk during class, picked arguments with other students and struggled to keep up academically. Moore sensed he wasn’t getting enough to eat.

Each day that year, she brought him whatever her daughter had for breakfast and slowly saw progress in his reading skills.

“You just do what you have to do for your students because you don’t want them hungry,” Moore said.

Hilary Seligman, senior medical advisor with Feeding America, said it shouldn’t be up to teachers to address child hunger.

“Because we have so much food insecurity among children, we shift that responsibility to the schools,” she said. “But normal childhood development is having access to food at home. That is part of creating for families in America a stable environment where kids are ready to learn when they arrive in school.”

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post ‘It’s hard to focus’: Schools say American kids are hungry appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Kristie To | Contributed

This school year, California’s new “School Meals for All” program began. As a student leader serving my school, the city of Irvine, and the California Association of Student Councils, I applaud California for being the first state to provide every K–12 student in our public schools with free breakfast and lunch. 

My peers and I rely on school breakfast and lunch every day. Many of my closest friends do not have the time and are not in the financial situation to provide themselves with meals to fuel their school day and concentrate in class. My parents and older sister have full-time jobs, and I struggle to prepare meals for myself with my busy schedule. This new program has alleviated the stress of buying and preparing meals that previously strained students and families.

Additionally, the free school meal program brings together the student body as a community. My friends and I often join the lunch line together, and I enjoy making conversation with my peers as we wait to be served our meals. When everyone receives meals for free, students are more likely to eat at school.

Our state grows the most fruits and vegetables in our country. I’d like to see more fresh California produce in our school meals. My school has a neighboring orchard, yet I receive packaged pineapple at school. It’s not local or sustainable. I urge my school to source more local foods, serve a variety of fruits and vegetables, and reduce packaging waste.

California’s free school meal program has changed my life and transformed the school day for six million students in our state. Without the burden of being responsible for buying and creating nutritional meals for myself, I can better focus on my education and positions as a student leader. Therefore, I believe all states should follow in the footsteps of California.

Kristie To is a high school student in Orange County. She serves in Student Government, her local Youth Advisory Council, and is on the Board of Directors and Executive Branch of the California Association of Student Councils. 

Opinions expressed in community opinion pieces belong to the authors and not The Hemet and San Jacinto Chronicle.

The Hemet and San Jacinto Chronicle is interested in hearing different perspectives throughout the community. If you want to weigh in on this issue or others please email editor@hsjchronicle.com.

• DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various author’s articles on this Opinion piece or elsewhere online or in the newspaper where we have articles with the header “COLUMN/EDITORIAL & OPINION” do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints or official policies of the Publisher, Editor, Reporters or anybody else in the Staff of the Hemet and San Jacinto Chronicle Newspaper.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post To: Student Leader Applauds California’s Free School Meals for All appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.