Just a quick post today reminding everyone that all children under the age of 18, enrolled in public school or not, qualify for a free lunch and breakfast through the end of the 2020-2021 school year. If your children are attending in person school, they should be receiving that there. If you are remote or hybrid, there should be a system set up. Likely most of you know about it already if you have kids enrolled in school. However, if you know of anyone who is homeschooling, their kids still qualify.
This website can help you find the locations where the free meals can be picked up. You can also contact your local school district.
School lunches do have to meet nutritional requirements, although there are some flexibilities allowed for the remote meal distribution. In the meals we have picked up, they consistently give servings of fruits and vegetables. The shelf stable milk was a life saver when stores were limiting how much milk you could buy.
And please remember, this is not the school lunch you and I remember. The guidelines have been updated to improve the nutritional value. One of the last updates began in 2012-2013 school year. Research has shown these updates to have improved the total of whole grains, green vegetables, beans, whole fruit, and decreased sodium.