School City of Mishawaka students to receive free meals for 2024-25 year

MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- On Wednesday afternoon, the School City of Mishawaka (SCM) announced it will be implementing a Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for meals served on the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program for the 2024-2025 school year.

"This means all students enrolled at SCM are eligible to receive a healthy breakfast and lunch at school at no charge each day of the 2024-2025 school year," school officials said. "Your child(ren) will be able to participate in the meal program without having to pay a fee."

Certain 'ala carte' items will still be available for students to buy and parents can still either send in cash, check or use MySchoolBucks for those payments.

"CEP pertains only to meals and does not extend to other educational benefits," school officials said. "Some examples of other educational benefits may include: resources that directly impact students, test/exam fee reduction or waiver, and eligibility for other discounts or program opportunities."

School administrators say that in order for SCM to continue receiving additional funding and grants, they are asking all families to fill out a form that will be submitted to the State of Indiana.

The data from the form, which won't be available for families to fill out until the school year has started, will be used by the Department of Education to determine funding SCM will receive based on household income status.

"We will notify you once [the form] is available and how you can simply go online to fill it out," school officials said. "In the meantime, your child(ren) can receive free breakfast and lunch starting on the first day of school."