All students in Astoria School District schools can receive free breakfast and lunch after adjustments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s meal service option.

To qualify for the federal program, school districts must have a required percentage of students identified as eligible for free meals through participation in programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or the Migrant Education Program.

As of this fall, school districts are also able to use Medicaid data toward this calculation. With the inclusion of students who receive benefits through the Oregon Health Plan or other Medicaid services, Astoria’s percentage of students eligible for free meal service increased to 40% — meaning that the school district can be reimbursed for 90% of the cost of free meal service.

Another shift that made free meal service possible was a midyear revision opportunity, according to Mindy Landwehr, the school district’s business manager. Typically, school districts would have to go through the process of applying for the provision during the spring. But this year, the district was able to use student data from this fall to apply in December and begin providing free meals in January.

The school district provided free meal service last year as well as the two years prior as part of a coronavirus pandemic relief effort. Superintendent Craig Hoppes explained that the district noticed a difference in meals served when families were required to pay this fall.

“Last year, when we offered just free meals for everybody and then turned around and had people pay, we were reducing our meals from anywhere from 40 to 50 meals per day being served to kids,” Hoppes said. “So we don’t track specifically those kids, but we were serving more meals — kids were eating more meals at school last year.”

Other school districts statewide have taken advantage of the changes to the federal Community Eligibility Provision to provide free meal service starting this month. Students at 22 of the 33 schools in Bend-LaPine Schools will get meals free of charge, for example, as well as all students in the Rainier School District.

The expiration of pandemic-era federal waivers for free school meals has led many school officials and advocates statewide to push for universal free meal service, regardless of income level. School district leaders in Astoria also emphasized the need to find a permanent solution. Under the Community Eligibility Provision, Astoria will continue providing free school meals for the next three years — or through the 2026-2027 school year — and then must reapply.

Hoppes emphasized that providing free meal service is a crucial step toward alleviating burdens for struggling families and is in line with the school district’s equity goals.

“As a district, we have a new strategic plan that talks about equity and removing barriers and we try to do that in a lot of different areas in the district,” he said. “But for kids to be able to eat — and parents don’t have to worry about making sure that they have food (and) money in their account — goes a long way to breaking down those barriers.

“Because kids are at school for two meals out of three a day. That’s a lot.”