tease

School district extends meal program deadline amid confusion

Credit for breakfast and lunch meals will be provided as needed to students in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District through Sept. 6, the district announced Thursday, to give families more time to enroll their children in district meal programs.

The announcement came amid confusion over the end of a federal program that made meals available to students at no cost over the previous two school years. That program, offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, officially ended over the summer, according to a district press release from July.

KPBSD Director of Planning and Operations Kevin Lyon confirmed Thursday that the district will offer a grace period for families through Sept. 6 to give families more time to enroll in meal programs. Lyon said he was not sure whether any district students were refused meals outright this week, but that it’s possible some students were redirected to a nurse’s office for alternative food options.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

Families can apply for free and reduced meals through a new online portal hosted by the State of Alaska. That portal can be accessed at mealapp.kpbsd.org. Families must create an account with School Cafe to access the online portal, according to the site. Limited paper applications are also available at school sites for families without access to the internet.

Families can also add money to their student’s school meal account at kpbsd.revtrak.net, and opt-in to allow students to charge school meals.

Students who participate in the free and reduced meals program are not charged for breakfast. Those students are charged 40 cents for lunch.

Students who do not participate in the free and reduced meals program are charged $2.50 for breakfast. Students in kindergarten through sixth grade are charged $3.50 for lunch. Students in seventh through 12th grade are charged $4 for lunch.

All students at Nanwalek School, Nikolaevsk School and Tebughna School are eligible for free meals, as those schools are part of the Community Eligible Program. The U.S. Department of Agriculture describes the program as a non-pricing meal service for schools in low-income areas.

More information about KPBSD’s school meal program can be found on the district’s website at kpbsd.org.

Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

tease
‘All the kids are grand champions’

Kenai Peninsula 4-H shows off at Agriculture Expo

Soldotna City Council member Jordan Chilson and Soldotna Mayor Paul Whitney grill hot dogs at the Progress Days Block Party at Parker Park in Soldotna, Alaska, on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Progress Days block party keeps celebration going

Vendors, food trucks, carnival games and contests entertained hundreds

Children take candy from a resident of Heritage Place during the 68th Annual Soldotna Progress Days Parade in Soldotna, Alaska, on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
‘It feels so hometown’

68th Annual Soldotna Progress Days parade brings festivity to city streets

Kachemak Bay is seen from the Homer Spit in March 2019. (Homer News file photo)
Toxin associated with amnesic shellfish poisoning not detected in Kachemak Bay mussels

The test result does not indicate whether the toxin is present in other species in the food web.

Superintendent Clayton Holland speaks during a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education in Soldotna, Alaska, on Monday, July 7, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Federal education funding to be released after monthlong delay

The missing funds could have led to further cuts to programming and staff on top of deep cuts made by the KPBSD Board of Education this year.

An angler holds up a dolly varden for a photograph on Wednesday, July 16. (Photo courtesy of Koby Etzwiler)
Anchor River opens up to Dollies, non-King salmon fishing

Steelhead and rainbow trout are still off limits and should not be removed from the water.

A photo provided by NTSB shows a single-engine Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub, that crashed shortly after takeoff in a mountainous area of southwestern Alaska, Sept. 12, 2023. The plane was weighed down by too much moose meat and faced drag from a set of antlers mounted on its right wing strut, federal investigators said on Tuesday.
Crash that killed husband of former congresswoman was overloaded with moose meat and antlers, NTSB says

The plane, a single-engine Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub, crashed shortly after takeoff in a mountainous area of southwestern Alaska on Sept. 12, 2023.

Armor rock from Sand Point is offloaded from a barge in the Kenai River in Kenai, Alaska, part of ongoing construction efforts for the Kenai River Bluff Stabilization Project on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Work continues on Kenai Bluff stabilization project

The wall has already taken shape over a broad swath of the affected area.

An aerial photo over Grewingk Glacier and Glacier Spit from May 2021 shows a mesodinium rubrum bloom to the left as contrasted with the normal ocean water of Kachemak Bay near Homer. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Greer/Beryl Air)
KBNERR warns of potential harmful algal bloom in Kachemak Bay

Pseudo-nitzchia has been detected at bloom levels in Kachemak Bay since July 4.

Most Read

You're browsing in private mode.
Please sign in or subscribe to continue reading articles in this mode.

Peninsula Clarion relies on subscription revenue to provide local content for our readers.

Subscribe

Already a subscriber? Please sign in