Seguin ISD gives final approval for free school lunches

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

(Seguin) – The Seguin ISD is finally celebrating the news of being able to offer free meals to students this coming fall. The district in May announced plans to apply for the Community Eligibility Provision for 11 of its campuses. The program, once granted, would allow the serving of free breakfast and lunch meals to all students no matter the family’s income.

Jacob Galvan, the director of Child Nutrition, says the Seguin ISD felt it was advantageous to pursue the program being offered through The United States and Texas Departments of Agriculture (USDA and TDA).

“The Community Eligibility Provision allows us to determine campuses that have a certain amount of students that are qualified for free meals through government assistance programs so what we recommend is that we establish a Community Eligibility Provision for 11 campuses which is Ball Early Childhood Center, all the elementary schools, both middle schools and Saegert campus which includes Burges and MBLC programs,” said Galvan.

Galvan says unfortunately, the program will not include students at Seguin High School. He says although high school students will still have to bring their lunch money, he believes the Child Nutrition and business departments will continue to evaluate the feasibility of adding the high school in future years.

Galvan says the district has entertained the idea of free meals for at least the last couple of years but believes that this year was the right year to help make the program happen.

“There’s been many things that have gone into what has allowed us to finally be able to participate since we reviewed this about two years ago. There have been some changes that have allowed us to directly certify or allow more students to get free meals so there’s been a lot of changes and we are happy that we are able to finally make it work for the district and I’m very excited for the opportunity to feed so many students for free and to get even more kids access to our program,” said Galvan.

Members of the Seguin ISD Board of Trustees expressed their excitement for the free meals as they officially approved the program during Tuesday night’s virtual meeting. They thanked those in position for getting the job done and for providing the financial relief for local students and their families.

Among those sharing their thanks was Board President Cinde Thomas Jimenez. Jimenez says the news is a real game changer and milestone for the Seguin ISD.

“I just want to make it very clear that it has been Mr. Galvan and Mr. Hillberg who have done the work to get this up and running and get this into our schools. They deserve all the credit. It’s a glorious day,” said Jimenez.

Tony Hillberg, the chief financial officer for the Seguin ISD, also expressed his applause for the entire operation of the Child Nutrition Department. He says despite the numerous changes triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, the meal program was not impacted as originally projected and continues to operate as a self-sustainable program.

This positive balance has also afforded the district the ability to keep its meal prices the same for students at the high school. Those prices include $1.70 for breakfast and $3 for lunch.

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