Free breakfast and lunch is available to all Kalispell Public Schools students.

This applies to both students attending school on-site and remotely.

The free meals are a result of the U.S. Department of Agriculture extending its summer meals program through Dec. 31. The move is to ensure children have access to nutritious food whether a school is open or closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For remote students, the district is packing boxes on a weekly basis. The boxes will contain enough ingredients to make breakfast and lunch over five days.

Families with remote students who want to participate are asked to email district Food Service Director Jana Graham at grahamj@sd5.k12.mt.us, with how many meals are needed by noon each Friday. Boxes may be picked up from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the Central Kitchen, 106 Northwest Lane, Kalispell.

“This morning we put together 240 meals for remote learners,” Graham said on Monday.

With remote learning kicking off on Sept. 8, the district currently has 735 students enrolled in its Remote Education Center. That number represents 13% of the district’s total enrollment.

For on-site students, the food service department has made some changes with meals.

“We’re doing a lot more pre-packaging,” Graham said, such as individual salads, for example, since all schools have discontinued salad bars.

Traditional hot lunch service has moved to sack lunches. However, sack lunches retain a hot lunch component.

“On-site, we do a sack lunch with a hot food item that goes in there,” Graham said, giving an example of a sloppy joe wrapped in foil.

In addition to a vegetable and main course, lunches also include a whole piece of fruit and milk.

Even though meals are free with no registration required, Graham encourages eligible families to still apply for free and reduced meals, which is based on income, because it isn’t certain that the USDA waiver will continue after Dec. 31. Free and reduced numbers also impact federal funding in areas other than food service such as academics and transportation. Federal Title 1 funds, for example, are given to schools with high percentages of students from low-income families to improve academic achievement.

For more information call 751-3646.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.