![[Updated] All Students to Receive Free Meals](https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/huntsville_city_schools_ar/article/image/large_4771a3c1-4a50-450e-84d4-bb1505ee7b8b.jpe)
October Update
HCS students will receive free meals for the remainder of the school year following new guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA is extending flexibilities to allow free meals to continue to be available to all children throughout the entire 2020-2021 school year. This unprecedented move is part of USDA’s unwavering commitment to ensuring all children across America have access to nutritious food as the nation recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originally Published November 8, 2020
All students in Huntsville City Schools (HCS) will be able to receive free meals following new flexibilities from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has extended several meal serving flexibilities as it relates to the Child Nutrition Program across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of those flexibilities entails permissions for school districts to serve meals to all children by executing the Summer Food Service program during the fall months of 2020. This unprecedented move by the USDA will ensure that all children regardless of their financial status will be eligible to attain free school meals.
- Executing the SFSP gives HCS the ability to serve all students in the district nutritious meals without any need for qualification regarding meal status.
- Meals will be offered at all HCS school sites starting on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020.
- HCS will also offer meals to all children who will be enrolled both virtually and traditionally.
- School meals will continue to be offered curbside and inside the schools via classroom delivery for grades K through 8th and strategically placed in school meal kiosks for grades 9-12.