School district offers free breakfast and lunch for all students

A salad bar with fresh fruit provided by AVI Fresh, the school district's food service vendor.

Starting with the new 2016–17 school year, all students in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District may receive free breakfast and lunch each school day, regardless of family income level.

Every pre-kindergarten through grade-12 student in every district school is eligible to receive a healthy breakfast and lunch daily, at no charge.

The district participates in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program, and previously accepted free and reduced lunch applications to determine eligibility. Now, the district is able to provide free meals through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

AVI Fresh, the district’s food service partner, will continue to provide the meals.

Families will no longer need to submit free and reduced lunch applications.

CEP is a national program that eliminates the burden of collecting household applications to determine eligibility for school meals, relying instead on information from other means-tested programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

The district is eligible to provide free breakfast and lunch for students for a period of five years (through the 2020–21 school year) before being reevaluated.

A la carte items will still be available for purchase at the high school and middle schools. Students must pay for these items with cash, by check or using the pre-paid balance on their Infinite Campus account.