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Free lunch participation skyrockets in past decade

Students at a Hamilton elementary school select from an array of vegetables at lunch. Even though healthy options are more expensive, the district runs in the black in its food service operations, even with a majority of children participating in the federal Free and Reduced Lunch program.

staff photo Students at a Hamilton elementary school select from an array of vegetables at lunch. Even though healthy options are more expensive, the district runs in the black in its food service operations, even with a majority of children participating in the federal Free and Reduced Lunch program.

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 8:56 PM Friday, December 23, 2011

The number of Butler County children receiving free or reduced-price lunches in the United States Department of Agriculture National School Lunch Program has doubled over the past decade.

In a March, 2001 report by the Ohio Department of Education, 10,326 county school children were participating in the program, 20 percent of the 51,003 children enrolled in public schools. In September, 2011, the ODE reports that 22,371 children, 38 percent of 58,119 students, are now receiving free or reduced-price lunches.

“I think some people are struggling to find jobs, and we’re seeing a lot of situational poverty at this time, families struggling on a day to day basis,” said Jason Merz, principal at Kramer Elementary School in the Talawanda City School District, “The number of families coming to the school and requesting help, especially at this time of year.”

The implications of this increase cut across many areas of district operations. Not only do districts get federal subsidies based on the number of students participating in the program, but there are ramifications in other areas of district funding and spending, from the cost of school supplies to the grants they are eligible for.

The Hamilton City School District’s food service generates $4.5 million dollars in a school year, said Cinde Gorbandt, dining services director, $3.5 million of that coming from the government, mostly USDA money although the state also contributes $73,000.

Gorbandt said that so far this year, the district has collected $1,425,139 from the USDA.

According to the USDA Web site, the National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program that provides “nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches” to children.

Current guidelines state that a child is eligible for reduced lunch if the family income is less than 180 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, and free meals if the income is less than 130 percent.

For a family of four, the family income needs to be less than $41,348 for reduced lunches, less than $29,055 for free lunches.

For each free meal a district serves, the USDA reimburses it for $2.77 and $2.37 for a reduced lunch. The USDA also reimburses districts 27 cents for each paid lunch served.

In fiscal year 2010, more than 31.7 million children nationally received their lunch through the program each day.

The Lakota Local School District has seen the percentage of students on the assistance program more than triple since fiscal year 2000, from 3.5 percent to 15.4 percent. Middletown City School District’s percentage doubled in that time, from 35 percent to 70.2 percent.

Hamilton’s percentages also increased dramatically in that time, jumping from 44 percent a decade ago to just over 70 percent this school year, with one elementary school reporting 100 percent participation.

The Talawanda City School District has also seen the numbers nearly triple, from just over 14 percent in fiscal year 2000 to just over 40 percent in the most recent report.

School district officials say that while the difficult economy is the main culprit in the rise, that advancing technology has increased the number of students participating by making the process more confidential.

“It used to be that when students went through the lunch line they had to hand the cashier a ticket,” said Ross Local School District Superintendent Greg Young, “so a lot of kids didn’t want the stigma of being from a low-income family.”

But now, most districts have some kind of computerized point of sale (POS) system where students either punch a PIN number when they check out, as they do in the Talawanda district, or show a student ID that prompts a debit from the student’s account, which is pre-paid by student or parent if they are not in the free lunch program, so that even the cashier doesn’t know which students are participating.

“I know it made a difference in the high school,” Young said. “The percentage has typically been higher in elementary schools than high school, even though they are the same families.”

In an effort to provide as much assistance to its families as it can, Talawanda has been actively promoting the accessibility to the free and reduced lunch applications.

“We know there are people who need help and we’re trying to take the stigma out of it,” said spokesperson Holli Morrish.

Assistance from the USDA, both in free lunch reimbursements and providing access to government commodities that allows schools to purchase some food items at significant discounts, helps the food services of districts financially.

But because students who receive free or reduced lunches are also exempt from paying school supplies, which also affects a district’s bottom line.

“There are things we have to spend money on that they’re not because we’re not allowed to collect fees for workbooks and other items,” said Kelley Thorpe, treasurer at Middletown City Schools.

Merz, who has seen the percentage of students on lunch assistance rise about 8 percentage points to 48 percent in his three-year tenure, said, “Some of the families that used to be paying school fees are not, and that includes some of the consumable items that teachers purchase, the hands-on material they use in the classroom.

“The teachers are getting creative, however, trying to find ways to share resources and classrooms at multiple grade levels.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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