Sedona-Oak Creek School District administrators announced at the Governing Board meeting on July 9 that as of the coming week, all students would receive one breakfast and one lunch every school day at no cost and all outstanding student lunch debt would be written off.

The free meals will be funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision, which was created by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. For a district to be eligible for participation in CEP, at least 25% of the district’s enrolled students must be qualified for state match programs such as Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as of April 1 of the prior school year.

As of this April 1, 357 out of 722 SOCSD students, or 49.4%, met this Requirement. “$64,060 is the projected ‘loss’ to [SOCSD] for running our food service program,” SOCSD Finance & Human Resources Director Stacy Saravo said.

“Given the size of [SOCSD] and the cost associated with running the program, our food service management company, Southwest Foodservice Excellence, has projected a loss for the FY25 school year. There have been yearly losses projected since 2016. During COVID-19 when the meals were being underwritten, we saw a gain in meal participation, and it is our hope that making the decision to switch over to the CEP program will increase our participation while increasing access to nutritious school meals at no cost to families.”

According to the documents for the district’s annual food service contract renewal, which the board approved unanimously on July 9, the district projects income of $43,352 from a la carte food sales for grades three through 12, $3,978 from special event food sales, $762 from adult food sales and federal reimbursement of $264,662 against food costs of $165,402, labor costs of $144,896, administrative and management fees of $50,542 and direct costs of $15,974.

“We will be reimbursed for approximately 79% of our student meals served at $2.95 per breakfast and $4.27 per lunch,” Saravo said. “The remaining 21% will be reimbursed at the federal paid rate of 38 cents per breakfast and 42 cents per lunch.”

At the end of the 2024 school year, the outstanding balance of student meal debt at SOCSD was $3,454.68 following a $500 donation from the Sedona-Oak Creek Canyon Lions Club to pay off part of the debt. Saravo said collecting the remaining debt has been deemed too costly and it will be written off as an operating loss.

SOCSD Superintendent Tom Swaninger said that moving to no-cost meals will eliminate a perceived social stigma associated with students receiving free or reduced-price lunches and improve the district’s efficiency by removing administration time spent collecting unpaid meal debts. The district also expects to save money on administrative costs related to collecting and processing meal applications, sending monthly statements and following up on balances.

“For our household, it eliminates some paperwork, there’s no need to submit applications for students to receive free or reduced school meals and no meal charges,” Saravo said during the meeting. “That’s a little bit of a caveat, there is paperwork, it’s just not the National School Lunch Program application, because we still need to collect information for Title I … but that form is much more streamlined than the National School Lunch Program.”

Parents and guardians will still be asked to fill out an income eligibility form to enable SOCSD to receive grant funding.

“In my dad’s terminology, I have to say, ‘Well, hell, it’s about damn time,’” board member David Price said during the meeting. “We ought to go on the record as a board in saying that … and then every district in this state ought to be funded for preschool and all day kindergarten too. I mean, I cannot believe Arizona. This state is so backwards it’s shameful. Somebody put that in writing.”

Board member April Payne expressed agreement with Price’s statement.

During the meeting, the board unanimously voted to approve reinstatement of preschool fees after the district had provided tuition-free preschool since August 2020.

Price, Payne and Governing Board President Randy Hawley are seeking reelection this year, and former SOCSD soccer coach Sam Blom is seeking a board seat on the November ballot. There are three open seats.

Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District will also be providing no-cost breakfast and lunches to its students “through [a] collaboration with Sodexo Food Service Company,” COCSD Superintendent Jessica Vocca announced in a press release on Wednesday, July 17.