March 2020 - SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced on Thursday that the California Department of Education’s (CDE) “CA Meals for Kids” mobile app has been updated to help students and families find meals during COVID-19-related emergency school closures.

“Food insecurity is a daily struggle for some of our students and their families and that struggle is even more difficult and complicated during the current COVID-19 emergency we’re all facing,” said Thurmond. “I’d like to thank the Nutrition Services Division, the Technology Services Division, and all CDE staff who worked on updating the app—and the hard-working school nutrition staff around the state who have heroically continued working, and who are continuing to serve our students during this unprecedented emergency situation.”

On March 10, 2020, the CDE received a special waiver from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that enabled a site that had previously been approved to operate the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) or Seamless Summer Option (SSO) to provide meals to students during a coronavirus-related closure.

As of today, the CDE has processed requests for more than 3,100 emergency feeding sites throughout the state. As school districts continue to update the Child Nutrition Information and Payment System, these sites will be populated into the “Meals for Kids” app. For the most up-to-date information, families should still contact their local school or district for free- or reduced-price meal availability in their area.

The “CA Meals for Kids” app was originally released in 2018 to help users to find the locations of California’s Summer and Afterschool Meal Programs, which are spread throughout the state. These programs provide no-cost meals to children aged eighteen and under. The app is available for free download through Apple’s App Store , Google’s Play Store, and Microsoft’s App Store web pages.

More information about the app is available on CDE’s CA Meals for Kids Mobile Application support web page.

More information and resources regarding coronavirus (COVID-19) and California's response is available at the CDE’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) web page.
Source: CDE