Nature Coast Times

The Citrus County School District is excited to announce our Food and Nutrition Services department will provide free meals to every enrolled K-12 student during the 2022-23 school year.

Citrus Schools is offering free meals by expanding its participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).  CEP will help provide free breakfast and lunch to our almost 16,000 students.

CEP allows schools and districts that predominantly serve low-income children to offer free, nutritious school meals to students through the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. The good news is participation is automatic and families are not required to fill out any forms or applications. Approximately 71% of our students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

"With the high price of gas, groceries, and other goods, lots of families are struggling," says Food & Nutrition Services Director Roy Pistone. "We hope this will help provide some relief. We knew the federal assistance from pandemic relief was going to end at some point, so we were happy to position ourselves to continue to feed students at no cost moving forward.”

Families will receive notifications in the mail with details of this program. We also want to encourage families who pack lunches for their students to take full advantage of the program and grab milk and two other items for free! Just one more way to help ease the financial burden on families. Student enrolled in eSchool are not eligible.

Citrus Schools will begin offering free breakfast and lunch to every student on every campus beginning the first day of school, August 10, 2022. 

For additional information please contact: Jean Terrano, Food & Nutrition Services, 352-726-1931, X 2402, email: terranoj@citrusschools.org.

 Non-Discrimination Statement per USDA Federal Guidelines

In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.

Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language), should contact the responsible state or local agency that administers the program or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339.

To file a program discrimination complaint, a Complainant should complete a Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form which can be obtained online at: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USDA-OASCR%20P-Complaint-Form-0508-0002-508-11-28-17Fax2Mail.pdf, from any USDA office, by calling (866) 632-9992, or by writing a letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant’s name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by:

1. mail:

   U.S. Department of Agriculture

   Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights

   1400 Independence Avenue, SW

   Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or

2. fax:

   (833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or

3. email:

   program.intake@usda.gov

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

Original source can be found here.