Starting with the 2026-27 school year, every student in Nash County Public Schools will be able to eat breakfast and lunch at school for free, the district has announced. Families will not need to submit meal applications or send in lunch money for standard school breakfasts and lunches. Students who want extras can still buy milk and other à la carte items, and anyone who prefers to pack a lunch from home can keep doing that.
According to Nash County Public Schools, the district plans to use the federal Community Eligibility Provision to cover meals district-wide in 2026-27. That move eliminates household meal applications and day-to-day school payments for regular meals. The district's School Nutrition page directs families to the K12PaymentCenter to prepay for snacks and à la carte purchases and notes a $1.95 fee per transaction. Local coverage of the decision was also reported by the Spring Hope Enterprise.
How the Community Eligibility Provision Works
As explained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP, allows qualifying schools to serve breakfast and lunch at no charge to every enrolled student without collecting individual household applications. Federal reimbursements are tied to a district's identified-student percentage, and the program is intended to cut paperwork and reduce stigma around free and reduced-price meals. Districts may still need to cover any costs that go beyond the federal reimbursements.
State policy has also encouraged districts to use CEP. After the 2023 appropriations act, North Carolina's Office of School Nutrition launched a CEP Meal Program Incentive, and its report to the General Assembly details how state and federal reimbursements were used to help schools make the transition. That incentive program directed millions in combined federal and state funds to schools that joined CEP and promoted strategies such as breakfast after the bell, according to an NCDPI report.
What Families Should Know
Families do not have to apply for the free meals. Breakfast and lunch will automatically be available at no charge to enrolled students once the policy begins in the 2026-27 school year. Parents who want to set aside money for snacks or à la carte purchases should register at K12PaymentCenter using their child's PowerSchool ID.
For questions about accounts or the new setup, Nash County Public Schools lists School Nutrition contacts on its website, including Angela Miller and Carolyn Pennington. The School Nutrition page also provides instructions for managing payments and balances online. District officials say families can expect more specifics in back-to-school information from individual schools as the 2026-27 year gets closer.
