Fresno Unified rolls out new menu for winter break meals

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Winter break for many students in the Central Valley is just around the corner, and during that 3-week period, Fresno Unified will be providing free meals.

There's no naughty or nice list here. All students under the age of 18 can enjoy a hot meal, whether they are enrolled in the district or not.

"For some of our children and our young people in our community, those meals may well be the most healthy food that they eat each day of that term," said Bob Nelson, Superintendent of School with Fresno Unified School District.

The food will be provided at 20 different middle schools, high schools and alternative education sites.

But the menu the chefs are serving up is not your typical cafeteria food.

"We have tamales, and we have chickpea masala. How beautiful it is to reflect a menu of our student population," explained Veva Islas, President of the Fresno Unified Board of Education.

There's also pozole and a yogurt parfait, and more items are being taste-tested and perfected before being added to the menu.

The food itself is not the only thing that's changing.

Students will have to eat on-site, and take-home meals will no longer be available.

"That was a waiver put in place by the USDA that had never been allowed before. It was related to the Covid pandemic, and so those waivers expired," said Amanda Harvey, Director of Nutrition Services with Fresno Unified School District.

However, the district has adopted a change that will expand the meal program in a different way.

"Now, we can give meals to the younger sibling when they come into the cafeteria in the morning. We didn't use to be able to do that, and it was really hard on our nutritious services people who told the little one in the stroller when they couldn't get food when the bigger brother or sister was getting it," added Nelson.

Meals will be offered during winter break from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 in the afternoon starting Monday the 18th.

For a full list of menu items and school locations, click here.

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