EBR Schools expands child nutrition program. See how students can get free food

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — A new initiative expands EBR Schools’ nutritional program at a time when the state has opted out of the Summer EBT program.

The program called “Feed a Child, Feed the Future” will provide free meals to students during the weekends, holidays and summertime.

EBR Schools Chief Human Resources Officer Nichola Hall said students who experience financial hardship and are enrolled in an enrichment program can get free breakfast and lunch meals every weekend starting Feb. 24.

“We are in the infancy stage of expansion and the point is to be able to pilot this program, especially in Baton Rouge where over the last year food insecurity grew by 35%,” said Hall.

She said one qualification for the nutrition program is that students must participate in an extracurricular activity.

“The program must be tied to some type of enrichment activities. Instructional activities, curriculum, anything that drives student participation. Once that’s existed all we need is an application,” Hall said.

There’s no cost to parents. EBR Schools is looking for community organizations to get involved and register in partnership with the program, Hall said.

“We’re venturing into holiday meals, so we want to see how this works. We’re able to expand with our community organizations in addition to providing holiday meals,” Hall said.

Save the Children Action Network State Manager Crystal Ellis said hungry children are more likely to struggle academically, experience developmental delays and have chronic health conditions.

“Gov. Jeff Landry’s decision for Louisiana not to participate in the program is devastating news. The Summer EBT program would’ve ensured each eligible child received $120 during summer months to access healthy nutritious food,” said Ellis.

“That bothers me because over the past two summers we’ve been a participant in the summer feeding program and so a lot of people are making these decisions are now looking at a child who has a hungry face,” Councilman Darryl Hurst said about the state opting out of the Summer EBT program.