Schools avoid student hunger over Spring Break

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Spring Break started Tuesday for more than 30,000 students in Indianapolis Public Schools.

The district would welcome students to 21 of its buildings over the two-week hiatus from class to prevent many children from going without a proper amount of nutrition.

IPS has extended its free meal offerings through the USDA Summer Food Service Program to include the break from March 24-April 3.

As of 2014, 86 percent of the IPS student body were eligible for free or reduced lunches. A similar situation is true for many districts across the state.

The Indiana Youth Institute (IYI) found in 2014 that 512,114, almost half of public school students in Indiana received free or reduced-priced meals.

IYI reported that the number of students eligible lowered in 2014 for the first time in more than a decade when otherwise numbers steadily climbed.