MIAMI (WSVN) – School leaders from Miami-Dade Public Schools and Broward County Public Schools unveiled new choices for school lunches as well as changes for free meals.<\/p>\n
As thousands of South Florida students go back to school, new items will be added to the cafeteria this school year.<\/p>\n
M-DCPS officials worked hard to ensure that every child\u2019s lunch is as healthy and delicious as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cA healthy breakfast helps concentration. Some studies show improved test scores,\u201d said M-DCPS Food Nutrition Officer Angie Kasleikis. \u201cWe make sure we focus on minimally processed items, so none of these foods contain food dyes or [monosodium glutamate] or high-fructose corn syrup and other such ingredients.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kasleikis showed 7News some of the new food items for this year\u2019s school lunch, including Wild Caught Salmon Nuggets, Louisiana Chicken Fillet, and Red Lentil Falafel with Salad.<\/p>\n
In Broward County, officials shared the process behind adding new items for their schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe listen to our students. Our students wanted flavor, our students wanted things that represented their culture, and they wanted some new vegetarian, vegan options,\u201d said Elizabeth Seeley, a registered dietitian for BCPS. \u201cWe have the plant-based Fiesta Salad, the plant-based Fiesta wrap, and Cajun fries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students shared their thoughts on the new food.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really big upgrade, and it actually tastes really good,\u201d said student Mya Oloya.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like the lo mien; like at first it looks like it doesn\u2019t have that much flavor, but when you try it you really do feel the sauces and everything that it has,\u201d said student Tomas Acevedo.<\/p>\n
Previously, breakfast and lunches were free for all students in Miami-Dade County and Broward, but new funding changes<\/a> are shifting that landscape.<\/p>\n In Broward, breakfast will remain free. But lunches in both school districts will not be universal.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we had a surplus amount of money because of grants we received from [COVID-19], and then we were able to have all of our students eat for free, but that surplus is now down,\u201d said Seeley.<\/p>\n In Miami-Dade, 121 schools will continue providing free breakfast and lunch to their students during the 2026-27 school year.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, we do have 121 of our schools that still qualify and will remain on the universal free breakfast and lunch program,\u201d said Kasleikis.<\/p>\n For a list of free or reduced lunches across school districts, click here<\/a>. For schools in Miami-Dade, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n \tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (WSVN) – School leaders from Miami-Dade Public Schools and Broward County Public Schools unveiled new choices for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-362873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}