Many students do not get their fair share of fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the day. These foods can be hard to find, expensive, and difficult to prepare for families who are on a tight budget or just don’t have enough time. view article

Keller ISD is pairing with a local nonprofit to help raise money from community donations in order to pay down students’ lunch debts. The drive for donations comes after it announced alternative meals for students who have too much lunch debt. view article

Moody Independent School District is one of a network of schools across Texas taking part in the state's agriculture department's 'Farm Fresh Initiative' this October, providing students with locally grown fruits and vegetables in their daily lunch. "Our beef is Welch Farms here in Moody, we get our lettuce from True Harvest in Belton, our milk comes from Oak Farms which is distributed out of Houston," said child nutrition director Sherri Vann. view article

Eating at the school cafeteria is not what it used to be, according to Central ISD officials. CISD feeds breakfast to approximately 500 students and lunch to just more than 1,000 students each day, and students are now offered Texas-grown beef and produce. “The Central Child Nutrition Department decided to start offering more local foods, because it is important knowing where your food comes from and what is in your food,” said Heather Brink, CISD director of child nutrition. “We wanted to support local farmers around the community and provide the best food possible to our students and staff.” view article

Keller ISD is hoping to offset lunch debt for students following the district's announcement that it would begin serving "alternative meals" to students who have unpaid meal charges. "We simply want you to know that Keller ISD has and will continue to fill the gap by providing free breakfast and lunch, as we always have," the district said in a letter to parents on Friday. view article

Keller ISD is introducing a new policy to address school lunch debt: “alternative” meals for children whose account balance is more than $25 in the red. For all age groups, the alternative, or no frills, meals will consist of a SunButter and jelly sandwich for breakfast and a turkey and cheese sandwich for lunch, according to the district. Both meals will be served with the fruit of the day and milk. view article

Beginning Oct. 21, the Keller Independent School District said it will begin serving an alternative meal to some students who have unpaid meal charges. The district said this applies to students across all grade levels with unpaid lunch balances greater than $25. "Keller ISD schools want to first ensure that all students have access to nutritious meals during school hours regardless of financial circumstances, while also addressing costly negative balances that may be accrued," the district said in a letter to parents. view article

Humble ISD officials began the 2024-25 school year on Aug. 7 with an emphasis on food services spending, which officials said helped lead to a $15 million shortfall in this year’s budget. HISD Chief Financial Officer Billy Beattie noted around $36.2 million of the district’s $651 million budget for fiscal year 2024-25 is allocated toward various food services projects. view article

Pleasant Grove ISD used money from a 2022 bond package to help fund a complete overhaul of their high school cafeteria. “It’s much larger, much brighter serves more people than the old one did. It’s a completely different style,” says Haley Turner, Director of Marketing and Communications at Pleasant Grove ISD, “It’s very grab and go kind of giving it that collegiate feel.” view article

A dedicated dad in Northwest ISD is tackling food insecurity one snack at a time. Matt Barker has spent the past few years leading a community effort to ensure students at his daughter's school don't go hungry during the school day. Now, his initiative has grown so large that he's providing thousands of snacks to multiple schools in the district. "It was just an idea, and we made it happen," Barker said. view article

Parents in Conroe ISD are expressing outrage online after the district sent out a text informing them of the district’s meal policy that limits the number of days students can charge for meals before they are denied food. The district clarified that the text was not sent out district-wide but was a campus-specific communication where the school name was accidentally left off. The text message sent states that secondary students cannot be charged more than 15 meals, including breakfast and lunch. view article

The new district-wide initiative aims to make sure students in need of food, supplies or clothes can focus on being a kid and on their studies. view article

With a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Frisco ISD will continue to offer free meals to students in Frisco through July 22. Any Frisco student, including those enrolled in charter, private and homeschool, is eligible to receive five days of breakfast and lunch each week. Advanced registration is required. view article

Curbside meals will resume Wednesday, January 20. Meals will not be served on Monday, January 18 due to the holiday. Free school meals for ALL Humble ISD students extended through May 28, 2021 All Humble ISD students, regardless of meal eligibility (free, reduced, or full paid), will continue to receive one breakfast meal and one lunch meal per school day at NO COST for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year. view article

Beginning Dec. 7, Fort Bend ISD will provide grab-and-go meals for students two days a week instead of daily, according to a Dec. 1 press release from the district. FBISD will also begin offering dinner meals for pickup. On Mondays, families will be able to pick up breakfast, lunch and dinner for Monday through Wednesday, and on Thursdays, meals will be available for Thursday through Saturday. view article

Beginning June 3, Curbside Grab and Go meal service will continue under the National School Meal Program through July 28. At the specified locations, distribution of five breakfast and five lunches is available to any child age 18 or younger every Wednesday. NO applications are needed for summer meals but the child must be present. view article

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Starting April 6, students at the Amarillo Independent School District will have new options when it comes to meal and internet service. According to a release issued Friday, the district will now hand out breakfast and lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., replacing the prior 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. breakfast pickup. view article

The Houston Independent School District announced on Wednesday that it had received approval from the United States Department of Agriculture and the Texas Department of Agriculture to waive the required application process for the National School Lunch/Breakfast Program. "All HISD students will eat all school meals for free during the 2017-2018 school year," the district said in a release Wednesday morning. Families still need to apply for this waiver though. view article

Fort Bend ISD is going to begin serving up something different for some students who continually fail to pay for their lunches -- a cold cheese sandwich with a side of milk, and that's not sitting well with some parents. We're not talking about students who qualify for free school meals. But apparently, these repeat offenders have gotten so "forgetful" that it's draining the district's budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars. view article

Because of a federal rule, kids throw away millions of dollars of fruits and vegetables every single day at school. But a new study shows a simple, no-cost trick that should leave federal policy makers saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?” When recess takes place before kids sit down to eat – instead of after - fruit and vegetable consumption increases by 54%. view article

Beaumont Public Health director Sherry Ulmer says West Brook High School cafeteria workers did not want old sandwiches to rot outside during the Beaumont Independent School District Thanksgiving week-long break, since they were not sure when the trash would be collected.  view article