Birmingham City Schools this week announced its policy for free and reduced-price meals for children served in schools under the National School Lunch Program and/or School Breakfast Program.
District leaders are also encouraging parents to register their children before the first day of school. They said more than 11,000 students have already registered, but a larger group of students still needs to complete their paperwork.
In addition, Birmingham City Schools has launched “Stopfinder,” a free app that provides families with real-time access to their child’s school school bus information.
The app allows parents to track their child’s bus, customize alerts for when their child arrives home, and communicate with district transportation leaders.
The district is encouraging parents and guardians who are eligible for transportation to sign up for the Stopfinder app by emailing Transportation@bhm.k12.al.us.
For School Year 2026/2027, Birmingham City Schools will continue participation in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). This USDA provision allows your child(ren) to participate in the school meal programs without having to pay a fee or submit a meal application.
CEP is a key provision of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, which allows schools and school districts in low-income areas to eliminate school meal applications and serve breakfast and lunch at no charge to all enrolled students.
CEP gives food service professionals more time to focus on preparing nutritious meals that their students will enjoy and gives students more time to eat those meals by cutting down on time spent in the lunch line. More importantly, by offering all students a nutritious breakfast and lunch at no cost, CEP helps ensure more students come to class well-nourished and ready to learn.
Children need healthy meals to learn. Birmingham City Schools offers healthy meals every school day. Breakfast and lunch meals will follow the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines for healthy school meals, so please encourage students to participate.
Parents or guardians who need more information may contact Sharon Sanders, Child Nutrition Program Director, at (205) 231-9655.
