Winfield-Mt. Union students will be guaranteed at least one free meal per school day this coming school year.

The district will be serving free breakfast for all of the students as they became eligible for this opportunity in the past year due to having enough funds in their reserve and having about 55% of the student body eligible for free and reduced lunch. Superintendent Jeff Maeder says him and Head Cook Tracie Hartman are excited for this program, “I’m very hopeful that it’s going to improve attendance and more specifically kids that sometimes are dragging in at the last minute or maybe a minute or two late. If they know there’s breakfast and they know they gotta get here in time to eat breakfast and they know that it’s free I’m hoping that between us and the parents we’ll get kids here that may be having trouble getting here on time or getting here.”

Maeder adds he hopes the free breakfast will help students’ learning. The staff are nervous about potentially serving about 400 students per day, but Maeder says they will learn to manage it as time goes on, similar to a free breakfast and lunch program they serve in the summer. Breakfast is expected to be served at about 7:30 a.m. as soon as the school year starts on August 23rd.