The Morongo Unified School District has announced that they will once again be offering free meals to all students during the upcoming 2024-25 school year.
Lunch and breakfast will be served at no charge at all MUSD sites, provided under the National School Lunch / School Breakfast Programs. Through the Community Eligibility Provision, a non-pricing meal service funding option for school districts in low-income areas, these programs are free to students regardless of their parent’s income status.
CEP allows the nation’s highest poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications. Instead, schools that adopt CEP are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students categorically eligible for free meals based on their participation in other specific means-tested programs.
By providing free meals for all students, the district has seen a shift in how the program is viewed by students and families. In the past, students utilizing the program may have been bullied for coming from a low-income family. Now that stigma has been reduced with accessibility across economic barriers.
The district switched over to the CEP system during the 2018-19 school year and has since seen about 10% more students utilizing the free breakfast program and about 20% more students utilizing the free lunch program District-wide. Last year the district served about one million lunches to students across the basin.
