Hill Country Chronicle

Austin ISD issued the following announcement.

The Texas Department of Agriculture recently announced an extension of current school meal programs through December 31. This extension allows Austin ISD to continue to provide free meals for any child under 19, or those over the age of 19 who are utilizing special education resources or currently enrolled in school to complete the requirements for a high school diploma from curbside meal sites.

Students participating in off-campus, remote learning may pick up breakfast and lunch, Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at more than 40 curbside locations throughout Austin.  

Austin ISD will serve free breakfast and lunch in the classroom for on-campus learners.  

Meals for children may be provided to parents or caregivers at curbside locations, even when the child is not present, provided they have one of the following forms of documentation at the point of meal service. The documentation can come from a non-AISD school as well. 

• Official letter/email from school that shows children as enrolled
• Individual student report cards
• Attendance record from Parent Portal of school website
• Birth certificate for children not in school
• Student ID cards

If the parent does not have documentation, the child must be present to receive a meal.

Meals feature foods that are cooked and prepared by staff in Austin ISD kitchens. Curbside meals are chilled and served cold to be taken home and reheated. The healthy meals served include protein, grains, fruits, vegetables and milk. 

Austin ISD will continue to provide free meals to the adults accompanying children or with documentation of the children they are picking meals up for through September 11. Meals are prepared by local restaurants and distributed Monday–Friday at Austin ISD curbside sites. Caregiver meals are made possible through funding from the City of Austin and the AISD Crisis Support Fund, established by the Austin Ed Fund. Food is available until it runs out. 

No documentation is needed for students to receive free meals through December, however schools need information from families, by October 30, to help maintain campus demographic information used for various types of funding.

• Income verification is needed from all families not receiving state-funded benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), with students enrolled at one of the 80 AISD schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provision program.   Income verification may be submitted during the online enrollment process, if not, then electronically on the Parent Cloud or a paper form will be provided to you.
• Meal benefit applications are needed from all families not receiving state-funded benefits with students enrolled at schools not participating in the CEP program.  Families may complete a meal benefit application at www.SchoolCafe.com. 

Meals will not be served while the district is closed for Labor Day on Monday, September 7.  Families received two meal packs on Thursday, September 3 and three meal packs on Friday, September 4, to help provide food access through the long weekend. 

Families may view meal sites and more information at www.austinisd.org/openforlearning/meals. 

Meal sites and times are subject to change. 

Original source can be found here.