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All Students At 44 Escambia Schools Will Receive Free Lunch, Breakfast This Year
July 28, 2022
Breakfast and lunch will be free for all students, regardless of income, during the upcoming school year at 44 schools in Escambia County.
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program means that parents of the students at these schools are not required to submit an application for the Free and Reduced Meal program at that school. However, siblings attending schools not on the CEP list will need to apply for eligibility.
The free meal schools are selected based upon income levels.
Meal applications, or payment, will be required at: Beulah Elementary, Blue Angels Elementary, Cook Elementary, Cordova Park Elementary, Hellen Caro Elementary, Kingsfield Elementary, Suter Elementary, Brown Barge Middle, Ransom Middle, Tate High and West Florida High. Parents at these schools should plan on providing their child with money for their meals until eligibility is established to avoid creating a deficit in their account. Funds can be added to student accounts online at myschoolbucks.com.
This program has been in place since 2015 in Escambia County and is not related to the pandemic.
Free meal schools are:
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
- Bellview Elementary
- Bratt Elementary
- Brentwood Elementary
- C.A. Weis Elementary
- Byrneville Elementary
- Ensley Elementary
- Ferry Pass Elementary
- Global Learning Academy
- Holm Elementary
- Jim Allen Elementary
- Lincoln Park Elementary
- Lipscomb Elementary
- Longleaf Elementary
- McArthur Elementary
- Molino Park Elementary
- Montclair Elementary
- Myrtle Grove Elementary
- Navy Point Elementary
- Oakcrest Elementary
- Pine Meadow Elementary
- Pleasant Grove Elementary
- Scenic Heights Elementary
- O.J. Semmes Elementary
- Sherwood Elementary
- Warrington Elementary
- West Pensacola Elementary
MIDDLE SCHOOLS
- Bailey Middle
- Bellview Middle
- Beulah Middle
- Ernest Ward Middle
- Ferry Pass Middle
- Warrington Middle
- Workman Middle
HIGH SCHOOLS
- Escambia High
- Northview High
- Pensacola High
- Pine Forest High
- Washington High
OTHER SCHOOLS AND CENTERS
- Achieve Academy
- Capstone
- Escambia Westgate Center
- Hope Horizon
- Jacqueline Harris Preparatory Academy
- Success Academy
Free/reduced meal applications are available here.
Pictured: An Escambia County School lunch, typically served on Wednesdays last school year. Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
36 Responses to “All Students At 44 Escambia Schools Will Receive Free Lunch, Breakfast This Year”
Great! should always be free, my tax dollars should be feeding kids, im good with that. how come kingsfield isnt on there!?!?!!?!?!?!
The economy is hitting everyone hard. It would be nice it all schools in the county were included in this.
Just because parents can afford to buy school lunches or send a lunch with their child, does NOT mean they do. They are too busy, out of bread, had to leave early for work, etc. It’s sad, but there are lots of kids out there whose parents, for whatever reason, don’t take care of them. Ask any teacher. It’s a real problem. I realize this article is about school lunches, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Nothing is free! There couples paying taxes that haven’t had children in school in 45 years. And when they did have children they paid for their lunches out of their own pocket. So if you do have children please except my tax dollars.
Why not make a volunteer type of program that people could contribute to if they CHOOSE to do so. I don’t know instead demanding money from ALL TAX PAYERS. It’s a charitable contribution offering a tax deduction, might get a little more when asking others nicely to provide assistance with a request rather than a demand
@CJ
Because it is in our best interest to provide for ourselves.
…Unless our goals are to live within the means of another’s efforts. In which case, like a prison, we live within their control.
I would like to know why tate is not on this list! It’s not right! If your going to offer free meals then it should be for everyone. Can someone please explain to me why people who are incarcerated can get 3 meals a day for free but our children cant????
If so much of everyone’s tax dollars weren’t wasted on no essentials in the County’s budget there would be plenty to feed all the kids . And until Escambia County residents learn to stand up / attend County Board meetings nothing will change. Do you all know exactly just how and what all your taxes are spent on yearly? What future plans for so called County improvements are budgeted for?
Maybe you should take some time out of your busy schedules and pay attention to how your money is spent
Someone has got to be responsible for all my babies. There aught to be consequences for a government that fails to meet the needs of my children!
@steve
Hahahaha! Spot on! O.M.G.!
Unfortunately there are a lot of families in all of the school areas that can’t afford lunch money. And some of these same families do not qualify for food stamps or free lunches. So yes, I feel all schools should have the same opportunities. With that said. that photo of the school lunch looked pretty good. But I have a granddaughter who refuses to eat school lunch because of the taste and quality of the meals. From what I have heard talking to other people and children throughout the county, the food is not that great. Unfortunately, I assume not as good as what we had for school lunches where I grew up 60 years ago. The meals at school were prepared from scratch at each school campus. Are they prepared from scratch at the individual schools here in Escambia County? Just asking. Yes I understand cost. But how much food is thrown out everyday, because the kids don’t eat it?
How about a little math , English and reading to go with that lunch ?
The schools that are not on the list are not TITLE 1 schools. Parents at those schools need to fill out the online free/ reduced lunch application to see if you qualify for free/reduced lunches. It should be in the school district website. More than 50% of the school population need to qualify for free/ reduced lunches for the school to be considered TITLE 1…. Lots of parents do not fill out the form because their kids take their lunches to school most of the time. It would certainly help if we everyone filled out the form. Some are probably eligible now and don’t even know it. Maybe someone can report just how close some of the schools are to being considered TITLE 1 schools and hopefully a few more parents will fill out the online application. It would be interesting to see how many schools are close to being a TITLE 1 school and would receive those services.
Shame on us that ALL schools aren’t included. Even schools in more affluent areas are attended by students whose families are struggling.
Discrimination at its finest! I agree with Straightshooter’s & Stressed Moms comments. There are folks at every school in need. Who makes this decision anyway?
Yay! My lunch money won’t get stolen anymore!!!!!
This just lists which schools give free lunch to EVERY student. There are still forms that persons that qualify can fill out and get free lunch for their children at the schools that do not offer it to everyone. So if qualify financially you can still get it if you fill out the forms.
This is not something to celebrate, its a failure of parents, our economic efforts, social safety net efforts, our criminal justice system and lastly, and to the least degree, education. Its hard for me to blame education at all because, everything else make Educator’s task almost impossible to achieve.
64%. Free lunch, on the public dole, taking tax money from grandmothers on a tight budget……we should never celebrate that or want more of it.
How does Beulah Middle school get free lunch but not Beulah Elm or Kingsfield Elm????
This makes no since.
Josh – because they are wealthy areas and do not receive title 1 funding like the others.
That is just awesome. Single mom of 4, no child support, make “too much” to get free/reduced and all of my kids go to schools not on the list. I already live paycheck to paycheck.
There should be more schools on this list. Unfortunately poor parent engagement prevents prevents accurate reflection of student population’s needs. It might be interesting to report on how schools make this list. What it means for a school to be a Title 1 school and how this helps the student population. More importantly what schools and students miss out on if they are not a Title 1 school. In the end, yes, we could save tax dollars by investing less in the local school system but Florida is already in 41st place for per student investment. There is not much room to invest less tax dollars in the kids…
As long as the kids actually EAT all these free meals. What happens to all the surplus? Just human nature – when you have something in abundance you no longer appreciate it
yummy… that free lunch looks good.
Cradle to Grave !
Ridiculous Beaulah Elementary should be on list why not just because people are buying expensive homes well not everyone in beaulah can afford to buy lunches when there are 4 kids and no assistance takes all we can to buy groceries.
100% and long overdue. I also like Concerned’s suggestions, all the way around.
I completely, 100% support this.
Taxes should be used to promote the general welfare and make our communities better. I am completely okay with paying a few extra cents every month in property taxes if it means that kids in our county don’t have to go hungry.
Same old story, either do it for all or none. There are wealthy people and poor people at every school. So, Molino Park gets free meals, ride around Molino and look at all the new fancy houses being built. Visit all these schools on first day and count the $150.00 new tennis shoes. My point is there are people in need at all schools, don’t pick and choose. Slayton is already on the no vote list after the tax increase, he voted for, another nail in the coffin.
It’s NOT FREE – It’s Tax Payer Funded … Nothing is Free …
How is Lipscomb on the free lunch list while Ransom and Tate are not?
This is ridiculous. I think every child should get free lunch. I mean the lunch isn’t that great and costs less to make than a cheeseburger happy meal. There are schools not on here that are in the same area and one gets free lunch and the other doesn’t.
May as well feed them…. Lord knows I pay enough school tax to float it…
that’s right raise the sales tax by 1% to make sure all kids get free meals and any money left over should go to pay raises all throughout the school system transportation dept new school bus and with on board camaras as well in schools paid security officers 2 at each school. stiffer fines like $500 each time they fly around a school bus better pay for bus drivers like $25 a hour starting pay. all the above try to protect children so pay them enough and give them the resources
I think all kids at all schools should receive free lunch.
alright, pad that property tax!