Pasadena ISD will provide free lunch and breakfast for all of its students in the upcoming 2023-2024 school year.
In a post on Facebook, the district said that there will be no free and reduced lunch applications required for this year. Those applications determined if a student would be eligible for free or reduce priced meals.
Now, those aren’t necessary.
“Meals will be free to all students beginning on the very first day of school,” the district said on its Facebook page. “We are excited to offer nutritious, tasty school meals at no charge to our PISD students thanks to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) grant we applied for and received.”
Pasadena ISD had cancelled its free meals program this past school year. During the pandemic, all schools received free meals.
The Biden administration lowered the threshold for districts to qualify for CEP grants that covered the cost of the meals. It used to only be available to districts who had at least 40% of students enrolled in SNAP Benefits; it has been lowered to 25%.
