PENDER COUNTY — Breakfast and lunch in several Pender County schools will be covered by a federal program this upcoming school year.
All students, regardless of financial status, will have their meals covered in the following schools:
- Burgaw Middle
- C.F. Pope Elementary
- Cape Fear Elementary
- Cape Fear Middle
- Heide Trask High
- Malpass Corner Elementary
- Penderlea School
- Pender High
- Pender Innovative Learning Academy
- Rocky Point Elementary
- West Pender Middle
The Community Eligibility Provision, a non-pricing meal service option for eligible schools and school districts in low-income areas, will cover the costs. CEP allows the nation’s highest poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch free to all enrolled students.
Participating schools are reimbursed based on the percentage of students categorically eligible for free meals based on their participation in other nutrition assistance programs.
The state is charged with certifying qualifying students; it only recently added Medicaid Free and reduced students to eligible students, which also includes homeless, migrant, runaway, pre-K and foster kids.
According to PCS Contract Manager for Child Nutrition, only two or three schools had enough qualifying students to partake in CEP previous to the rule change.
Based on enrollment last year, the program would benefit 4,641 students and save Pender County a little over $57,000 a year. Families do not need to register to benefit from the program, in effect throughout the 2023-2024 school year.
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