D.C. Public Schools is embarking on a new effort to simultaneously reduce hunger and improve academic achievement. Ten thousand students enrolled in the District’s public schools will now have the opportunity to eat three free meals per day.

Eighty percent of DCPS schools now offer dinner for free or at reduced costs to underprivileged students in a special new program, according to The Washington Post. The program is part of the Healthy Schools Act, signed in to law last spring by Mayor Adrian Fenty, which seeks to improve the nutritional value of the food served in D.C.’s public and charter schools.

Students have been able to enjoy free or reduced-cost breakfasts and lunches for a long time, according to the Post, but officials hope that with the new dinners more parents will enroll their children in after-school programs, according to The Washington Post. The program also has the more concrete goal of improving nutrition as 43 percent of black children in the District are underfed, a necessary step according to Nathanial Roloff, director of D.C. Reads.

“The economy has affected the east side of the city the hardest. . That means that many of the kids are suffering in various ways, including food insecurity,” Roloff said. “In few, but some, of the homes in D.C., the children are the most responsible people in the house. All those things require, if we expect kids to learn, some food support.”

The new meals are expected to adhere to higher nutritional standards. In addition, cafeterias must make more meals from scratch rather than serve defrosted foods. Schools should also create health profiles to monitor their progress.

“I have heard a lot of reports from adults saying that it was great for the kids, and some saying it is too healthy and that they don’t like it,” Roloff said. “Realistically, it is great for the students to get some extra needed nutrition.”

The program is expected to cost $5.7 million this academic year and will be subsidized by the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program.