Students at three Bourbonnais elementary schools may not have to worry about remembering their lunch money next school year.

Bourbonnais Elementary School District 53 is applying for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision for three of its schools: Shepard, Shabbona and LeVasseur.

The Community Eligibility Provision is a federal program allowing schools and school districts in low-income areas to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without requiring families to submit household applications.

Some other local school districts that participate in the CEP program include Kankakee School District 111, Bradley Elementary District 61, St. Anne Unit District 24, Momence CUSD 1, and Pembroke School District 259.

“I’ve been looking at this program for years hoping that the district can get involved in it because I think it’s a win-win for everyone,” said Dennis Crawford, chief school business official.

The Bourbonnais School Board on Tuesday gave its approval for the district to submit applications for its three K-3 schools to participate in the CEP program.

“As I’ve dug year to year, we just never could financially qualify,” Crawford said.

This year, Crawford worked with Quest Food Management Services, which provides the district’s food service, to look into which Bourbonnais schools could be eligible to participate in the upcoming school year.

In order to qualify for the CEP program, schools must meet a minimum of 25% “identified students” as of April 1 in the year prior to implementation.

Identified students are directly certified for free-meal benefits without having to fill out a household application. This is based on their families receiving other financial assistance, such as SNAP or TANF, or based on homeless, migrant, runaway or Head Start status.

Schools in the CEP program must offer breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students every school day.

The districts cover food costs and are reimbursed with federal funds.

Any meal costs above the federal assistance must be covered by the district using non-federal funds.

By the numbers

At Shabbona, 159 out of 270 students are identified for directly certified free-meal benefits, or about 59.4% of the school.

At Shepard, 256 out of 466 students are identified, or 55.4% of the school population, and at LeVasseur, 127 out of 245 students are identified, or 45.2% of students.

The percentage of students likely to claim free meals is 94% at Shabbona, 88% at Shepard and 83% at LeVasseur.

Based on these numbers, the USDA would reimburse the district for 94% of the costs of feeding students.

“To make it fiscally responsible, you really need it to be 80% or higher,” Crawford said. “Anything under 80%, it’s just too costly for the district to get involved.”

The district would pay about $12,735 to feed kids at Shabbona, $28,724 at Shepard and $22,750 at LeVasseur, for a total of $64,209.

However, participation in school meal services typically increases by 10 to 20% when food is covered for all students through the CEP program.

“Typically, it’s kind of logical, if you provide something for free, a lot of people take it,” Crawford noted.

Based on an estimated 15% growth, meaning more students claim meals and are eligible for reimbursement, the district could see a surplus of $1,739.

Superintendent Adam Ehrman noted the district is already chasing a lot of the funds required to feed students.

Students who can’t afford to pay for meals cannot be turned away, meaning the district is left with unpaid meal debt.

“We’re dealing with a deficit that we have to factor in,” Ehrman said. “We know every year we’re going to be chasing dollars that we may never get.”

Meal prices increase

Exploring the CEP program, even if only three of five schools can participate, is essential, Ehrman said, particularly as lunch prices are set to exceed $5 next year.

On Tuesday, the board approved new meal prices for the 2026-27 school year.

Breakfast prices will be $2.60; lunch prices will be $5.10, and milk will be 90 cents.

The reduced price meal costs are 40 cents for breakfast and lunch.

The district charges slightly more than the cost of meals from Quest, about 10 cents more for breakfast and 7 cents more for lunch.

Crawford said the price differential brings in about $30,000 to $40,000 per year, which the district uses to maintain its food service facilities, complete inspections and replace equipment.

“Our goal is to try to get the prices the best we can for the meal service that we can provide, but then cover the operation costs for the district,” Crawford said.

The district has worked with Quest since 2023 after legislative changes allowed school districts to hire food service companies through a non-competitive bid process.

The company was selected based on its focus on serving fresh food and food prepared from scratch.

The district previously contracted with Aramark for food services.

In its first year of implementation, Quest meals cost about 38 cents more than Aramak’s meal prices.

Crawford noted that, as the quality of food has increased, participation in school meal service has also increased.

If the schools are accepted, the CEP program would be in place for at least the next four years.

Building higher participation in meal service over the past few years has helped set the stage for being able to apply for the CEP program now, Crawford said.

“I’ve been hungry to do this for years,” he said.

Crawford said he expects to bring back information to the board on the schools’ status in June or July.

Ehrman also noted the district will continue to assess the numbers each year for possible future participation at Liberty Intermediate School and Bourbonnais Upper Grade Center.