For the second year in a row, Lawton Public Schools will offer free breakfasts and lunches to all of its students.
“Our Child Nutrition team did a lot of work to get our application processed through the Community Eligibility Provision work last year and it continues to pay off for our students,” said Kevin Hime, LPS superintendent. “We still need our families to fill out the required school forms to ensure we continue to qualify.”
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a federal reimbursement program. The 2024-25 school year was the first year the district was approved to participate in the program, which allows school districts with a high percentage of low-income students to serve free meals to all students.
Daniel Ghrayyeb, director of Child Nutrition for LPS, said because a certain percentage of students enrolled in LPS meet the guidelines, the entire district was approved for the free lunch program.
The free meals are funded by several different renewable federal grants. Breakfast has been free for many years, as has the summer feeding program. Lunch was added to the menu of free meals last school year, according to Ghrayyeb.
Students in the elementary After School program also receive a free meal. Ghrayyeb said some students don’t get home until early evening, so they are fed a meal similar to a school lunch with an entree, vegetable, fruit and milk.
Ghrayyeb said the free meals meet the district’s goal of removing barriers so that students have access to food. With that goal in mind, the district deliberately steers students toward opportunities for nutrition. For elementary students, that means funneling them through a line where breakfast items are offered as they enter the building in the morning. For secondary students, that means offering them four or five breakfast items such as a breakfast sandwich or oatmeal in a cup that they can grab between classes, Ghrayyeb said.
To ensure that all students get enough to eat, LPS will continue to provide extra servings.
Oklahoma Voice, citing a report from Hunger Free Oklahoma, reported that 256 districts in the state already provide free meals to all students through the Community Eligibility Provision. Those 256 districts serve more than 277,000 students, according to the report.