The South Panola School District posted last Friday a notice to alert parents the child nutrition department will not be accepting lunch applications this year.

“We are a provision two district, which means all students’ meals are free,” the post said.

Anyone with questions should contact the child nutrition department at 563-9361.

According to the School Nutrition Association, 95,000 schools/institutions in the United States participate in the National School Lunch Program, serving about five billion lunches annually.

Of those, 21 million are free lunches, and another one million are reduced price (40 cents).

Nationally, the program costs about $17.8 billion annually.

The School Breakfast Program serves about 15.5 students each day, including about 12 million free meals, at a federal cost of 5.8 billion dollars.