Food at California’s charter schools

The more than 900 pub­licly fin­anced charter schools in Cali­for­nia are freed from many rules that ap­ply to school dis­tricts. When it comes to meals, charter school of­fi­cials are left to make in­de­pend­ent de­cisions about what’s for lunch. Some choose not to serve it at all, rais­ing ques­tions about wheth­er the nu­tri­tion needs of some of the state’s poorest chil­dren are be­ing met. A re­cent state audit found in­com­plete re­cords and lack of re­sponse made it dif­fi­cult to provide a com­plete pic­ture of nu­tri­tion pro­grams on charter cam­puses.