Free Meals Program

Meals for Kids Ages 1 Year and Older

Grace Community School will give all children ages one and up FREE meals. We provide breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks at no additional charge to you. By preparing our meals fresh onsite at each Grace Community, we ensure that the hot meals are hot, and the cold meals are cold. Infants also have the option to receive free food.

Each meal includes multiple components with an emphasis on plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Since we follow USDA guidelines, we limit sugar, use whole grains, and provide sufficient lean protein from a variety of sources. Hot food items are baked in our convection ovens, not fried, to reduce fat content. Milk is served at breakfast and lunch, and snack time comes with either juice or fruit. Water is also served with all meals and available throughout the day.

We vary our menu to expose children to a wide variety of healthy, exciting, and colorful foods. Nutrition is a crucial building block of a healthy life and child development. Childhood obesity is still on the rise, and young children’s eating habits directly impact their future. Helping young children build good habits now is vital. This starts with parents and caregivers providing healthy meals and modeling good behavior. Our fresh-prepared meals show kids that food that’s good for you can taste good, too!

Each Grace Community School receives regular food shipments to supplement our menu with fresh fruits and vegetables. If you would like to know what specific items are included in our meal program, you can see our menu anytime. We’ve included it here, but you can also see it on our downloads page.

Onsite Kitchens

We make our food daily onsite, fresh. Each Grace Community School location has a kitchen with a convection oven, freezers, refrigerators, steam tables, and all the equipment needed to safely prepare both hot and cold food items. Our staff includes skilled cooks who have taken Florida Department of Health training. We deliver meals from the school kitchen directly to each classroom at mealtimes.

What if I Want to Pack My Child’s Lunch?

If your child has an allergy, dietary restriction, or religious preference that prevents them from taking part in our free meal program, you can pack meals. However, you will need to follow some guidelines. Please note that refrigeration space is not available, so packed meals should be in insulated bags (or an insulated lunch box) with freezer blocks. We can’t microwave or otherwise heat items, but you can use an insulated thermos to keep hot things warm.

• Nuts or peanut butter, due to the increasing number of children with nut allergies
• Unhealthy snacks such as potato chips, Cheetos, etc
• Confectionery such as chocolate bars, cakes, cookies, sweets
• Sugary beverages such as sodas

Packed meals should INCLUDE:

• At least one portion of fruit and one portion of vegetables every day
• Meat or meat alternatives such as cheese, yogurt, etc.
• A starchy food such as bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, cereal, etc.
• Dairy food or non-dairy such as milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.

You need to label all meal containers with the child’s first and last name. Your Grace Community School location’s office can assist you with these guidelines.

Is Food That Important?

Is the food your child eats on a regular basis that important? In a word: yes. Food is fuel. You are what you eat, as they say. From ancient times we have known that food is vital to good health, just as important or more so than physical exercise. The World Health Organization estimates that almost half of all childhood deaths are linked to malnutrition.

Even when it doesn’t endanger a child’s life, less-than-optimal child nutrition harms kids — even affecting academic performance. Conversely, eating healthy foods, and not skipping meals has been shown to boost test scores. Let’s not forget that kids who eat better have more energy to play and have fun!