Fort Mill Schools offer free breakfast to all students amid rising grocery costs

FORT MILL, S.C. — Fort Mill Schools in South Carolina are offering free breakfast to all students regardless of their family’s socioeconomic status. State lawmakers helped provide $2.9 million in funding to support the program.

The initiative comes as families face rising costs for everyday household groceries. At elementary schools within the district, a standard student breakfast normally costs $1.90 per meal.

For families with two children who eat school breakfast five days a week across a 32-week academic period, the program offers potential savings of more than $600 annually.

Summer Stephenson, a local shopper, noted the impact of those savings. “Yeah, six hundred dollars definitely makes a difference,” Stephenson said.

Kim Alvis, another local shopper, cited the increasing cost of daily essentials. “You know, everything, day-to-day things as far as cereal and milk and stuff like that, it’s all getting higher, more expensive,” Alvis said.

Joe Burke, a representative of Fort Mill Schools, noted that while the district has a low percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced-price meals, many families sit near the eligibility threshold.

“The key thing about this is that while we have a very low free and reduced population here, there are still a lot of kids that are right on the border that may not qualify for that,” Burke said. “But truthfully, this helps out for everybody, especially in times when things are getting more expensive. This is one less thing parents have to focus on.”

Jennifer Candela, a local shopper, shared her observations on rising food expenses and the importance of school meals.

“I think that it’s gone up significantly in the past year, at least that I’ve noticed it. It’s a lot harder to keep food on the table for sure,” Candela said. “Is that I think every kid should eat breakfast every morning, no matter where they come from, if they can afford it or not.”

School leaders reported that they have already observed an increase in the number of students participating in breakfast at school.

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