Napa Valley schools see rise in number of students eating free lunches, officials credit lack of stigma

Napa Valley school officials said they have seen a rise in the number of students participating in California’s universal school meals program since it began in the 2021-22 school year.

The state’s first-in-the-nation program provides public school students with free breakfast and lunch regardless if they are eligible for free or reduced-cost meals. That means all students at each of the Napa Valley Unified School District’s 26 schools can eat for free.

In the program’s first year, the district served 1.5 million meals to students. The number jumped to 2.2 million in the 2022-23 school year and rose again to 2.4 million last year.

“We have seen a really dramatic increase in participation in our programs,” said Kristen Tekell, food service director for the district. “It allows any kid to come into the cafeteria and eat.”

Tekell believes the increase of students and the amount of meals served is due to students no longer feeling embarrassed in needing or asking for food, as a result of California’s free meal program.

“What it has done is kind of taken away any stigma that was tied with it,” Tekell said.

The federal government issued a policy amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that allowed public schools to provide meals for students at no cost.

The decision came after schools had to close, which left many children who were dependent on school lunches without a meal.

“During COVID we really had to pivot because so many families were getting breakfast and lunch and we had to figure out how we continue to feed kids,” Tekell said. “It was really stressful and challenging during it, but what it did was really elevate the importance of school breakfast and lunch programs.”

After the federal program ended in 2022, California passed legislation to create its own universal meals program. It is paid for with a combination of state and federal funds.

Other states, like Massachusetts, Colorado and Maine, soon followed.

“On average across all of our schools, we have about 55% of our student population eating,” she said. “We have around 16,200 students, so we’re feeding 55% of that every day.”

The district’s food program, Napa’s Operative for School Food Health, or NOSH, is in charge of preparing the meals from scratch and sourcing from local Napa food providers.

“We primarily, or we try to do, a lot of scratch cooking and local purchasing and transition away from what a lot of people think of as for school lunch,” Tekell said. “So, we’re kind of unique in that way.”

Local partners include Toasted, a female-owned bakery in Napa that provides fresh bagels for the middle and high schools, as well as West Won Bakery in Napa, Clover Sonoma and Mary’s Chicken.

Founded in 2017 by Ariella Wolkowicz, Toasted began its partnership with NOSH during the pandemic, and provides about 2,000 bagels a week during the school year.

“It’s been good for us business wise and it’s nice that we’re able to do something for the kids that may not otherwise have the chance to get that,” Wolkowicz said. “I’ve enjoyed it and school is coming back in two weeks so we’ll start again.”

Although Toasted doesn’t have a storefront, the “nomadic bagel shop” appears at farmers markets, pop-ups and is now providing bagels for schools in Calistoga.

“You can have a school made of gold and all the latest technology, but if you're hungry, you're not going to be able to learn,” Tekell said. “It's really a basic need that must be provided.”