ATLANTA — A free lunch and breakfast will be available every single day for every single student in the Atlanta Public School system, officials said Wednesday.
With nearly 52,000 students enrolled in Atlanta Public Schools as of March, that comes out to more than a half-million free meals available a week.
The school system said it will be able to offer the free meals through the Community Eligibility Provision program, a federal U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program that subsidizes meals in districts where 40 percent or more of students enrolled already receive aid individually. That can mean assistance in the form of food stamps, homeless services or participation in the Pre-K Headstart program.
According to the district, in Atlanta almost half (49 percent) of schoolkids receive aid.
The school system also says it will offer food options like turkey burgers, smokehouse barbecue chicken and baked potatoes through Southwest Food Excellence, a food services contractor.
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