LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Students in the Pulaski County Special School District (PCSSD) returned to the classroom on August 19 and as students started the new 2024-2025 school year, many were also returning to free school meals.
PCSSD is offering a break from the costs of breakfast and lunch meals for families and students at 19 different schools in the district, as they implement the first year of the Provision 2 program.
"Provision 2 is a four-year program that allows us to feed families at no cost to the family," said Regina English the PCSSD Student Nutrition Director.
Out of the district’s 26 total schools, 19 of those are under the Provision 2 program as the district works to cover as many students as they feasibly can because the district is in the base year for the Provision 2 program, with a lot riding on it.
Schools set to receive free meals this school year include:
- Cato Elementary, College Station Elementary
- Crystal Hill Elementary, Daisy Bates Elementary
- Harris Elementary, Joe T. Robinson Elementary
- Landmark Elementary, Lawson Elementary, Oak Grove Elementary
- Oakbrooke Elementary, Pine Forest Elementary, Sherwood Elementary
- Sylvan Hills Elementary, William Jefferson Clinton Elementary
- Maumelle Middle, Mills Middle, Sylvan Hills Middle
- Sylvan Hills Junior High, Mills University Studies High
“The last thing we want is for our families to worry about is where lunch is going to come from,” English said. “This first year is very important for households to help us fill out the free and reduced applications since it's what we need to keep this status."
To qualify for free breakfast under Provision 2, households must fill out a free and reduced application from the district, but English said it's to make sure that as many families as possible are covered for the next three years, not this base year.
“We're going to base our remaining three years of the program off of our application numbers from this first year,” English explained. “So the more we get, the more qualified we are, and it won't go back into costing other funds.”
This inaugural or base year of the Provision 2 program the Child Nutrition Account is covering the costs of students’ meals from each of the 19 schools, and it’s costing them $800,000.
“If we fail to get back 70% of the free and reduced applications [then] we'll be back on another base year,” English said. “I don't know that my program can sustain another base year.”
The base year determines if the district gets to enter the second year of the four-year program or start from the very beginning.
A PCSSD breakfast and lunch meal totals $6 for elementary and middle school students and roughly $6.25 for secondary students. While it may not seem significant, English said it can be a financial burden for some families.
"This past year, our district left with $300,000 worth of charges that parents owe, and that was with the CEP program, and only offered 12 schools,” English explained. “So, imagine [if] we had to go back to 25 schools. we'd be over a million dollars."
Learning while hungry is a reality for some students that English has witnessed firsthand. So even with a high cost for the child nutrition account, the price of an empty stomach is greater to English.
“We run into parents telling their children they just can't eat today because we don't have the money,” English said. “The last thing I want to do is have students not be able to learn because their bellies hurt or they're hungry, you can't learn if you're hungry.”
English is a big reason why the district is now under Provision 2. She urged families to fill out the application before the deadline on October 1.
“If I have to get on the phone with families every day, I’m going to do it because we want to fuel them, and I want more kids to eat,” English said.
The district has a link to the online application on their website, parents or guardians can also reach out to the Student Nutrition Director directly. For more information, please click here.