Las Cruces schools welcome students back with free lunch for a year

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — Las Cruces students will eat breakfast and lunch for free this school year.

According to Kelly Jameson LCPS spokesperson between 70 and 90% of students in the district previously qualified for free or reduced meals.

"All of our schools have a high level of families who qualify under free and reduced lunch, said Jameson.

All Las Cruces Public schools will serve breakfast and lunch free of charge to all students for the entire school year. This will eliminate the need for free, reduced-price, or paid student meals.

"Just the stigma of that is hard on a child with a ticket that is different than everybody else's or having to go into a different line," said Kelly Jameson LCPS spokesperson.

"It is a very emotional struggle for students so this levels the playing field," said Jameson.

This was made possible because of the Community Eligibility Program extends the district's ability to provide breakfast and lunch for all students within the district.

"If you look at the simple math of having to feed every single student every day. If you average 2 dollars every day for breakfast and lunch, that's an excess of 8 million dollars just in a school year that we're saving on our administration and our operation costs," said Jameson.