Although schools in Orange County are slowly beginning to reopen, many districts continue to lend a helping hand to students and families by offering not only free lunch but also free breakfast as part of grab-and-go meal programs.
After campuses were forced to close to students last March, school districts across Orange County set up grab-and-go stations to make sure children didn’t go without healthy meals. Now, almost a year later, most districts across the county continue to offer families the ability to pick up five days’ worth of breakfasts and lunches each week for children 18 and younger.
As of right now, the free breakfast and lunch programs will continue through the end of the 2020-21 school year and the decision to continue the free program remains up to the USDA.
Dates, times and locations for meals pick-ups can be found by visiting any of Orange County’s school district websites or by calling the district office directly.
And here are some of the other stories we’ve been following this week:
- The CIF Southern Section this week announced that playoffs and championships were canceled for fall sports, citing a desire to create more time for schools to potentially play regular-season games.
- In related news, expressing frustration over the postponement of youth and high school sports competitions, hundreds of parents and student-athletes from Orange County and across the state rallied to push for games to resume safely.
- The College Board this week announced major changes, with plans to remove the optional essay portion of the SAT college entrance exam, as well as discontinue its SAT subject tests.
- Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools Austin Beutner is pushing to use the district’s 900 campuses as COVID-19 vaccination centers — a move that could speed up the reopening of in-person classes for students.
- New proposed legislation announced Wednesday by President Joe Biden could provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, impacting hundreds of thousands of California schoolchildren, EdSource reports.
- And, President Biden on Thursday announced he would sign several executive actions to help reopen schools across the nation. NPR reports that the President wants to see most K-12 schools in the United States open during his first 100 days in office, which would be between now and April.
- The Irvine Unified School District this week received a $2 million donation from the Irvine Company which will help the district provide art, music and science programs for students in grades four through six.
- Governor Gavin Newsom’s Safe Schools for All plan, intended to bring financial assistance to reopen California campuses, could come with attached strings that would strain budgets for local school districts, according to CalMatters.
- The California School Boards Association presented Golden Bell Awards to 11 educational programs from Orange County that drive student engagement, improve school cultures and close opportunity gaps.
- Cox Communications is inviting high school seniors who demonstrate a passion for learning and a desire to pursue a higher education to apply for college scholarships.
- The County of Orange plans to open its second Super POD COVID-19 vaccine site at Soka University in Aliso Viejo on Saturday morning.
- The California Supreme Court has denied a petition seeking to force the Los Angeles Unified School District to provide instruction and other services in-person to students who have been most affected by distance learning.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with local education news stories by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroom, subscribing for emailed updates and following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.