BATON ROUGE (AP) — Erasing differences between rich and poor students, schools throughout Louisiana are offering free meals to all children.
The Advocate’s Charles Lussier reports more than 300 schools have adopted a federal program for high-poverty school districts since it became available this school year. The largest school district to sign up for the free-meals-for-all students program is the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, the second-biggest district in Louisiana and home to 80 of the participating schools.
Participating food service directors are reporting a variety of benefits: more children eating more meals, less time and money spent processing paperwork and hungry children no longer denied meals because they can't pay.
