Education | Free school lunches will be offered in Broward this school year. Here’s what you need to know.

School lunches will be free in Broward County this upcoming school year.

The last school year that allowed kids to chow down on their pizza without shelling out any money was in 2021-2022. Then last year, some schools in Broward continued to get a free lunch through a nationally funded program called Community Eligibility Program, where 40% of each school’s student population had to qualify for free or reduced meals.

But more than 60 Broward schools didn’t qualify, and those students had to go back to paying for food last school year, officials said.

For this upcoming school year, additional schools met the federal qualifications for free lunch. To allow the last 47 schools to participate, the Food and Nutrition Services department applied for a federal U.S. Department of Agriculture pilot program, which will last just this school year — for now.

Last school year, that price tag came to about $55 million in food — breakfast and lunch — for the district. This year, due to reduced enrollment, Broward Schools’ Food and Nutrition Services department expects to spend about $41 million overall, but it gets reimbursed through grants, and not the district’s budget.

The brand-new lunch menu items that are being offered to students include barbecue chicken wings, corn poppers, hoke poke bowls, vegan lentil pasta primavera, and chicken teriyaki stickers. Returning menu options include the vegan chickpea salad, Jamaican beef patty, cheeseburgers, whole grain cheese pizza, hummus with crackers, Asian chicken, pierogis, and yogurt parfaits.

But will it last?

“Universal Free Lunch Program is a pilot for this school year,” said a schools spokeswoman. “We will see how this school year goes to determine next year.”

Breakfast, however, has been free for more than a decade.

Universal free breakfast started in 2010. The USDA guidelines require 80% of each school’s student population had to qualify for free or reduced meals to get those free sausage and bagels and eggs. Although 77 of Broward’s 240 schools and centers met that criteria, Broward County schools Food and Nutrition Services department made up the difference district-wide with funding from USDA programs and grants.

Casie Maggio, assistant manager of Nutrition Education and Training, said by ensuring lunch districtwide, it could lead to more energy and higher test scores for kids — and less of a financial burden for parents.

In Palm Beach County, lunch was free of charge in both the 2020-2021 and the 2021-2022 school years under USDA COVID waivers. For this upcoming school year, it will be free again, also through the USDA.

Broward schools resume Aug. 21, and Palm Beach County students head back Thursday.

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at . Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash