{"id":403136,"date":"2026-08-11T02:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T02:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403136\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T02:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T02:24:10","slug":"austin-isd-to-provide-free-meals-at-69-schools-east-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403136\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin ISD to provide free meals at 69 schools | East Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin ISD<\/a> will provide free breakfast and lunch to every student at 69 campuses during the 2026-27 school year through the federally funded Community Eligibility Provision<\/a> program, the district announced<\/a> Aug. 7.<\/p>\n

Students at non-CEP campuses will also see a change: those approved for reduced-price meals will now get both breakfast and lunch at no cost, thanks to state funding<\/a> from the Texas Legislature.<\/p>\n

The details<\/p>\n

The CEP allows schools in qualifying low-income areas to serve free meals to all enrolled students, with no applications or paperwork required, according to the program website. The 69 participating campuses span Austin ISD’s pre-K centers, elementary, middle and high schools, along with several alternative and child development campuses, per the Aug. 7 release.<\/p>\n

At schools not in the CEP program, meal costs still depend on a student’s status\u2014free, reduced-price or paid. Paid breakfast runs $1.90 at elementary schools and $2.15 at middle and high schools, while lunch costs $3.40 at elementary schools and $3.65 at middle and high schools, according to the district website. Students approved for reduced-price meals will get both meals free.<\/p>\n

What parents should know<\/p>\n

In accordance with Texas Department of Agriculture guidelines<\/a>, families can qualify a few ways: through direct certification via state-funded benefits<\/a> like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs; through enrollment in foster care, migrant, homeless or runaway programs, or Head Start<\/a>; or by completing an application on the district website<\/a> or on paper at their child’s school.<\/p>\n

Students can charge up to five breakfast and five lunch meals if their account runs low, and AISD said it will notify families by letter, email or text when a balance dips. Once that charge limit is reached, students will still receive a courtesy meal at lunch, with no cap on how many they can get, per the district.<\/p>\n

Families who believe they qualify for free or reduced-price meals but haven’t been notified or who want to decline benefits can contact Austin ISD Food Service<\/a>. Meal benefit applications can be submitted anytime during the school year at www.SchoolCafe.com\/AustinISD<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin ISD will provide free breakfast and lunch to every student at 69 campuses during the 2026-27 school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47316,141257,141265,141267,132,134,1685,141263,133,141258,116049,141259,141256,141266,141261,141262,141264,6605,141260],"class_list":["post-403136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-2026-27-school-year","tag-aisd-free-lunch","tag-aisd-meal-benefit-application","tag-aisd-schoolcafe","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-isd","tag-austin-isd-food-service","tag-austin-news","tag-cep","tag-community-eligibility-provision","tag-free-breakfast-and-lunch","tag-free-school-meals","tag-low-income-schools","tag-reduced-price-meals","tag-school-meal-eligibility","tag-schoolcafe","tag-texas-department-of-agriculture","tag-texas-legislature-funding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}