To ensure that all children in the district receive proper nourishment, the district shall take part as feasible in the National School Lunch and other food programs which may become available.

The Secretary of Agriculture establishes on an annual basis standards under which school students may qualify for free lunches under the National School Lunch Program, free breakfast under the School Breakfast Program, and free milk under the Special Milk Program.

Program regulations specify that the school district shall at the beginning of the school year publicly announce the family size eligibility standards that the district has adopted for use in determining eligibility for free and reduced-price meals.

Under the legislation, schools participating in the reimbursed program are required to serve free meals to all children from families whose total gross income level is at or below the applicable income level upon receiving an application from the family.

Methods of distributing and collecting applications, instructions to parents and eligible students, and all other particulars concerning the actual serving of the free and reduced-cost meals are to be planned by a district representative and presented to the superintendent or his designee for approval.

Current practice codified 1988

Adopted:
5/7/90

LEGAL REFS.:
Federal National School Lunch Act of 1946, as amended
Child Nutrition Act of 1966, as amended
RCW 28A.31.020
RCW 28A.58.724