Child Nutrition Program
Our Purpose
The goal of the Child Nutrition Department is to provide affordable and nutritious meals to students of our school system. Athens City Schools deliver healthy and delicious school meals based on the USDA’s nutrition guidelines so that students are engaged and ready to learn in school. All meals include a variety of fresh fruit and vegetable choices and a variety of chilled non-fat or low-fat milk.
Athens City Child Nutrition Program Fact Sheet
- FREE breakfast at every school for all Pk-12th grade children.
- The average number of children served daily — Lunch: 2,200 / Breakfast: 2,100
- All meals must meet federal nutrition guidelines.
- Breakfast offerings always include fresh fruit.
- Lunch options always include fresh fruit and fresh vegetables (salads).
- Lunches also include whole grains, reduced/zero trans fats, low-fat dairy, baked items, healthy cooking, and prep techniques.
- Calories are limited based on the age of the children being served.
- After school snacks are available free of charge for students at AES, BES, CES, JNES, AIS, AMS and AHS. A snack consists of two meal components that includes a 6oz juice or 8oz of milk AND a 1oz wholegrain or 1oz string cheese or 1oz Gogurt. Some common examples are 6oz fruit juice with a bag of wholegrain chips, 8oz milk with animal crackers, or 6oz fruit juice with a Gogurt.
- All fluid milk must be 1% milk fat or less.
- Students have choices but must take at least 1 serving of fruit or vegetable.
- Items may appear to be the same as store-bought products, but they have been specifically made for schools with whole grains, reduced sodium, fewer calories, etc.
- Chicken and Potato products may appear fried to appeal to students, but they are baked.
- Pizza has a whole-grain crust, low-fat cheese, and reduced sodium sauce.
- Our School Nutrition Services team uses a program that calculates the nutritional values of all meal offerings to ensure they meet strict standards.
- All menus are available on any school website or the district website. Nutritional information is available per request to central office.
- Free and Reduced Priced Meals can be completed online from the district website by clicking FREE & REDUCED LUNCH APPLICATION or downloaded from the district website.
- Online payments and alerts of low balances can be set up by clicking the link ONLINE MEAL PAYMENTS on any school or district website.
- USDA research indicates that children who participate in the School Lunch Program have superior nutritional intakes compared to those who do not participate.