Starting tomorrow, Thursday, September 3, all children in Oakland 18 years old and younger, can get food. They can be students in charter or private schools, or homeschooled. Students in our Young Adult Program can also receive food. It will include three meals for each weekday, and two meals for each weekend day. On Thursday, families will be able to pick up ten meals per child, plus other necessities courtesy of our partners across the city and county.
The fall semester policies that began on August 1 had caused a significant decline in participation in the District’s grab and go program, presumably because many families have children in both District-run schools, who could receive food, and charters or other schools, who could not. Another likely explanation is that the previous requirement that families had to show their students attend a District-run school might have scared some people off because they were worried their private information would fall into the hands of the federal government. The District assured families this would not happen, as OUSD does not give private student and family information to the federal government, yet it still likely contributed to the drop-off.
