Long Term School Lunch Plan Approved For Framingham

FRAMINGHAM, MA—On Wednesday night, the Framingham School Committee voted unanimously to approve a new meal policy, adding additional language and processes to build upon their action on April 25 to ensure that all students be provided breakfast and lunch, regardless of their meal account balance. Although accounts will still be charged and parents/guardians will still be responsible for a child’s account balance, a student’s daily balance will have no negative impact on receipt of a meal, said the announcement from the school committee.

This new policybuilds upon an old one and applies it to all the schools so that no student can be denied breakfast or lunch. The policy also says that no middle or high school student will be made aware of a negative meal account balance in the checkout process, singled out, or treated in any way that sets them apart from those with positive meal account balances.

“This proactive approach by the entire School Committee is a move to support Framingham’s students and make sure 100 percent of the kids who want a school breakfast or lunch receive it,” said Adam Freudberg, chair of the Framingham School Committee, District 4, in a statement. “We want our students to focus daily on active learning along their path to reach high levels of achievement - not focus nor worry about having access to a meal. I’m very pleased with the collaborative partnership and amount of community feedback since we acted in April. This all led us towards this comprehensive policy solution.”

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“This action by the Framingham School Committee at once exemplifies a commitment to meeting the needs of all students, removing barriers for children in the spirit of access and equity, and believing in a system that is built upon best intentions, not simply discarded because of a worry that some may abuse the system,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert A. Tremblay in a statement. It is a model that assumes positive intent by everyone and sets our students on a daily course that recognizes nutrition as the necessary base for learning and active school engagement.”

The committee and superintendent also recently discussed their mutual goal to track the financial impact and implementation of this new policy at discussions during upcoming School Committee meetings, ramp up data collection efforts to ensure we are receiving as much federal aid as possible, and increase efforts to offer customer-friendly case management to parents/guardians on food services, according to the announcement.

The next School Committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 5, at 7 p.m. in the Blumer Room at the Memorial Building.

Photo Credit: Charlene Arsenault, Patch staff