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MSD of Martinsville approves one-year pilot to provide free school lunches for all students
Summary
The MSD of Martinsville School Board voted to implement the USDA Community Eligibility Provision for one year, covering breakfast and lunch for all pre-K–12 students and pausing families’ typical $450,000 annual meal payments while the district evaluates participation and funding formulas.
The MSD of Martinsville School Board voted to implement the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision for one year, providing breakfast and lunch at no cost to all pre-K through 12 students in the district.
Kurt Bodell, food service director for the MSD of Martinsville, told the board that the district’s meal program is self-supporting from USDA reimbursements and payments and that the district sits “right there on that line” to qualify for the provision. “Lunch would be provided at no cost to them,” Bodell said of families, noting the change would preserve about $450,000 that parents currently pay for lunches each year.
The measure is a one-year authorization so the district can assess participation rates and financial effects under the different federal funding formula the Community Eligibility Provision uses. Bodell said the district already offers free breakfast to all students and that the new option would extend that coverage to lunch, while a la carte items would still carry a charge. He encouraged families to continue completing free-and-reduced-price applications because those forms support other programs, such as college fee waivers.
Board members moved and seconded the motion and approved it by voice vote. The board did not record a roll-call tally in the session’s minutes; the motion was adopted and the superintendent’s office will oversee implementation and the one-year evaluation.
The district plans to work with the Indiana Department of Education and USDA guidance to implement the provision and said it will re-evaluate the program after the trial year to determine whether to continue under the federal formula. The board noted the district will need to adapt internal processes for collecting household information because participation and program data flows differ under the provision.
Implementation details, including how eligibility information will be collected for non-meal benefits that rely on free-and-reduced data, were not finalized at the meeting and will be addressed by district staff after the board’s approval.
