The San Diego Unified School District will be offering meals-to-go for students fasting for Ramadan through the month of March.
The Ramadan ‘To Go’ Meals campaign will begin on Feb. 24 and run through March 28.
The district’s Food & Nutrition Services Department, also known as Sandi Coast Cafe, has developed a specific menu for the campaign in order to better provide nutrition security and health equity. Participants in Ramadan generally fast between sunrise and sunset, leaving school meal serving times inaccessible for those students.
The department has developed a special menu of precooked and packaged meals that can be taken home and easily prepared at a later time.
The program was made possible thanks to a waiver by the California Department of Education which grants school districts the ability to serve noncongregate meals as part of the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs.
“This waiver from the state, combined with the hard work of our nutrition staff, and cooperation with school site leaders, will allow us to better serve all of our students and families,” Alicia Pitrone Hauser, Director of Food & Nutrition Services for San Diego Unified, said in a release.
“For students fasting during Ramadan, this program allows us to send meals home with children to meet their nutrition needs once the daily fast has concluded.”
San Diego Unified is one of only five districts in the county offering a new meal option for students observing Ramadan.
Families are asked to fill out a Ramadan meals request form, similar to those that are used for field trips and other offsite locations. Children or their parents and guardians are asked to pick up meals at their school site at the end of each school day.
Each day’s package will contain one breakfast and one lunch per student.
