Long before State School Superintendent Ryan Walters demanded Oklahoma public schools feed students for free, El Reno Public Schools was working to do exactly that. 

In April, El Reno was notified it had qualified for a program administered by the USDA that would provide every student in the district with free breakfast and lunch during the school year. 

Known as the Community Eligibility Provision, the El Reno district was then notified last week that it had been accepted into the five-year program, said Superintendent Matt Goucher. 

Goucher said El Reno Nutrition Director Jeff Edwards and Tara Roblyer, director of communications and information systems, had been working for several months to gather the data necessary to apply for the federal program. The deadline to apply was in April. 

“It was really a great effort by Jeff and Tara to gather the information needed to apply for this,” Goucher said. “We think it’s a wonderful thing for our community.” 

Goucher said Edwards and Roblyer actually started collecting the data and compiling the information needed to apply for the program “close to a year ago.” 

El Reno, Goucher said, has about 80 percent of its students qualify for the federal free and reduced lunch program. With the new program now being implemented this school year, every student in the district is eligible to eat for free. 

An incoming freshman class that numbers 278 helped El Reno qualify for the USDA program. The large class pushed the district over the threshold for qualification. 

Goucher said only students in grades 10-12 are allowed to leave campus for lunch. Freshmen eat breakfast and lunch at the Jeff Mills STEM Center, while seventh- and eighth-grade students at Etta Dale Junior High eat in the cafeteria in Lucus Hall. Elementary students eat at their respective school sites. 

Edwards, now in his 12th year with El Reno, said the free lunch program is just another way the district works to “do what's best for kids.

“It’s just like our summer food program,” Edwards said.

“We work to do what’s best for kids.”

Edwards said the school nutrition staff works to create menus that are pleasing to the youngsters as well as nutritious.

He said items such as sandwiches made from the same chicken Chick-fil-A uses is an example of offering healthy and pleasing items to the students. 

“I think this is really going to be good for the community,” Edwards said. 

The district will be posting information about the program on its social media sites as well as sending letters to households, Goucher said. 

Also, Goucher said the district will again be providing free school supplies to every student enrolled in El Reno Public Schools.

A “generous grant” from the Ashbrook Foundation helps fund the project. Goucher said it’s another way the district is “doing our best to look out for the community.”