TIFFIN, Ohio — Every K-12 student in Tiffin City Schools will eat breakfast and lunch at no cost this school year, and families do not have to apply or turn in anything to get it. The meals begin Tuesday, the first day of classes.

The district said it qualified for the Community Eligibility Provision, a federal option under the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs that lets high-poverty districts feed every student for free without collecting household meal applications. The U.S. Department of Agriculture sets the rules and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce administers the programs in Ohio.

“No student should have to worry about whether they can afford breakfast or lunch at school,” Food Service Director Colleen Neely said in the district’s announcement Monday. “Providing meals at no cost to our households allows us to focus on making sure every student has the nutrition they need to learn, grow, and succeed.”

Superintendent Greg Williamson said in the announcement that the change helps both in the classroom and at the kitchen table — a student who has eaten breakfast is ready to learn, and a family that no longer budgets for school meals keeps that money at home.

“This puts students first, and it is a real savings for our families,” Williamson said. “I want to thank Colleen and our food service team for helping to get us here.”

How the program works

To use the Community Eligibility Provision, a district, a group of schools or a single school must have at least 25% of its students already certified for free meals without a household application — children identified through programs such as SNAP, Medicaid and Ohio Works First. The USDA lowered that threshold from 40% in a rule that took effect in October 2023, opening the option to more districts. Eligibility is measured using data as of April 1 of the prior school year.

Tiffin City Schools met the threshold for 2026-27. Free meals apply to every enrolled K-12 student at Washington, Krout, Noble, Tiffin Middle School and Columbian High School. Breakfast is served before school and lunch is served daily. The district’s Lincoln Pre-K building was not among those listed in the announcement.

The free meal covers one complete breakfast and one complete lunch per student per school day. Anything beyond that — extras, second lunches, snacks, milk for students who bring their own food, and incomplete meals — is still charged to the student’s meal account, and students cannot buy those items on a negative balance.

Meal accounts have moved to PaySchools Central, which replaced Titan/LINQ. The district said previous balances carried over. Families can register at payschoolscentral.com or through the PaySchools Central app, and the district still accepts cash and checks. PaySchools customer service can be reached at 877-393-6628.

The one form families are asked to fill out

Because the district is no longer collecting free and reduced-price meal applications, families will not receive one this year. Instead, the district is asking one person per household to complete a short CEP Household Information Form, available on the PaySchools dashboard under School District.

The form does not determine whether a student eats free — every K-12 student does, regardless. The district said the form is confidential, takes a few minutes and helps Tiffin City Schools qualify for other state and federal funding that supports students. Household income data collected through those forms is commonly used in school funding and program eligibility calculations, which is why districts operating under the provision still ask for it.

Ohio and federal context

Ohio does not pay for universal free school meals. The two-year state budget signed in June 2025 keeps funding that makes meals free for students who qualify at the reduced-price level, but the line item that covers the state’s share of school meal programs was cut by about 5% compared with the prior year, according to an analysis by Policy Matters Ohio. A bipartisan Senate proposal to fund breakfast and lunch for all Ohio students, carrying a roughly $300 million annual price tag, was not included in the budget.

That leaves the federal Community Eligibility Provision as the main route for Ohio districts that want to feed every student without charge. It also arrives as hunger programs across the state report strain: participation in summer meal programs has climbed while federal nutrition cuts tighten eligibility, and groups running mobile summer meal routes have reported steady demand from families during the months when school meals stop.

For Tiffin City Schools, the change lands less than a year after voters approved the district’s first new operating levy since 2012.

Questions about school meals can be directed to the Tiffin City Schools Food Services Department at 419-447-5768. Menus are posted on the district’s Food Services page.

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