Angust Tank
A representative lunch as served in the Plymouth Cafeteria. October 1, 2025
Free school meals will remain available to all students at East Middle School, West Middle School, and P-CEP following the Michigan Legislature’s approval of the full state budget.
The finalized budget includes permanent funding for universal school meals, eliminating the uncertainty that surrounded the program earlier this fall.
Free breakfast and lunch immediately resumed October 1 at all P-CCS schools, starting with Wednesday’s lunch.
According to P-CCS, students who paid for breakfast that morning will have those charges automatically refunded within two weeks.
Free meals at these schools had been reinstated temporarily through a continuation budget passed on the morning of Oct. 1, just hours before lunch service. That extension had guaranteed free breakfast and lunch only through October 7, 2025.
Now, with the full budget passed, that short-term measure has been replaced by ongoing support for free school meals statewide. The decision ensures that schools not qualifying for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), including East Middle, West Middle, and P-CEP, will continue to offer meals at no cost to students.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who has championed universal meals as a key investment in education, praised the legislature’s action. “This is more than just a meal — it’s peace of mind for families and fuel for learning,” she said in a recent statement.
Across Michigan, the change will prevent schools from having to shift back to a paid meal model, a process many districts had already begun preparing for.
The temporary provision had followed the lack of progress in settling the state budget. Schools not qualifying for CEP were told to revert back to the standard free, reduced, or paid meal model beginning Oct. 1.
Under CEP, entire schools can provide free meals to all students without requiring individual applications, if the proportion of low-income families in any given school meets a threshold.
For the 2024–25 school year, many P‑CCS elementary schools and some special programs had qualified for CEP, allowing those schools to continue offering free meals school-wide. East Middle, West Middle and P‑CEP do not qualify as CEP schools, so they had been subject to the budgetary guidelines.
Had the budget not passed, the price of meals would have been dependent on student grade level. For high school students, breakfast would have cost $2.75 and lunch $4.50. For middle school students, breakfast would have been $2.50 and lunch $4. For elementary students, breakfast would have cost $2.25 and lunch $3.75. Extra cartons of milk are priced at 75 cents, and a la carte item prices vary.
Based on a student’s family income, students qualify for either free, reduced-price, or full-price meals. To check eligibility status, families are still encouraged to fill out the Education and Nutrition Benefits Form found in MiStar Parent Connection.
For many students, the potential end of free meals highlighted just how important the program had become as part of their daily routine.
Mannat Chauhan, Plymouth senior, said she has been regularly receiving free breakfast and lunch since universal meals began in the 2023–2024 school year. She says the meals quickly became part of her daily school experience.
“Personally, I loved the free breakfast and lunch,” Chauhan said. “There’s just so much variety in what I get to eat every day and I really enjoy that.”
Chauhan had planned to stop using the school meal program once payment was required. “I’m just going to pack a lunch from home,” she said. “I think in the long run it will be cheaper.”
She’s one of many students who expressed disappointment as the program appeared to be scaling back. Chauhan added that the shift could affect students who have come to rely on school meals as a dependable part of their day.
Jack Olson, a Plymouth sophomore also regularly uses the school meal program — getting lunch every day and breakfast when he has time. He shared similar concerns about the sudden change.
“I’m probably just gonna have to bring my food because I don’t want to be spending money every day,” Olson said. “I’m a little bit disappointed because it’s kind of inconvenient and I have stuff after school and not always time to make my lunch, and I just think it’s a little unfair.”
Olson also commented on the quality of school meals, especially if they were going to be paid for out-of-pocket. “If we have to pay for it, I would hope that the quality is better because I’m not paying for bad quality food.”
The reinstatement of free school meals had originally been described as a temporary measure, with state officials warning that education funding could be consolidated in future budgets, forcing programs like meals to compete for limited resources.
Even within P‑CCS, the district had stated it was “continuing to follow the State of Michigan’s budget process,” noting that any further updates could influence whether free meals remained in place.
That update has now arrived, and for students, the meals are available every day of school.