District nutrition leadership told the board the local school-lunch program is seeing higher participation so far this school year, particularly for breakfast, and that staff are working to speed line throughput.

Director Cotton (nutrition/staff) said the program is up “about a 30% increase in breakfast and 10% in lunch” week over week. He offered specific early-year numbers: “Today we did 1,564 breakfasts, and last year at this same point we did 1,203,” and said “today we did 3,030 lunches, which is a 343 increase from last year,” though he cautioned final reimbursement totals will be known at the end of the month. Cotton said the increased participation has reduced the district’s reliance on free-and-reduced applications and eased collection work for schools.

Staff said the primary operational challenge is moving more students through serving lines in the same time windows; the district is adjusting processes to improve throughput. Cotton called the volume “a problem to have” and said they will evaluate reimbursements at month’s end to determine whether meal-program revenues increase alongside participation.

Why it matters: increased participation can raise federal/state reimbursements for the district and change food-service staffing and line-management needs; staff said they will monitor reimbursements and line-efficiency improvements and report back.