When food prices rise in supermarkets, the cost of feeding our children at school also rises.
In some school districts, this burden on families is reduced.
This school year, more school districts will be able to provide free meals to their students.
No matter what school you send your children to, whether you pack their lunch or give them money for lunch, feeding children is neither easy nor cheap.
WSBT spent the morning talking to parents about how they stand for lunch at a local park.
“We make a lot of chicken nuggets and peanut butter sandwiches and things like that that they eat,” says Laura Borst, mother of three young children.
“It’s definitely a lot of work in the morning and it definitely adds extra costs,” says Katie Miller, who homeschools her children.
“I think meals should be provided. It’s a no-brainer,” says Tim Ruszkowski, father of two teenagers who attend school in Mishawaka.
The good news for many families is that in some school districts, more children are eating free, healthy meals.
School City of Mishawaka is one of these districts.
“A school must have a certain percentage of identified students who are directly certified as school-free,” explains Linda Cupp, director of SCM Food Service.
Cupp explains how the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) works.
CEP is a program that allows schools to reimburse school meals based on a percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Families do not need to apply.
Instead of collecting, approving, and reviewing applications for free or reduced-price meals, local education agencies in high-poverty areas can implement the CEP program if they have identified enough students in need.
Identified students include students who are eligible for public benefits such as SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid Free, as well as homeless students, migrant youth, runaways, foster children, and some Head Start students.
Districts that qualify for and wish to implement CEP must use an Identified Student Percentage (ISP) to determine eligibility and the amount of reimbursement the district would receive.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) expanded its CEP program last year, allowing more school districts in high-need areas to offer free school meals.
Before the rule change, only schools with 40% of students classified as high poverty could qualify.
School districts where 25% of students are classified as needy can now qualify.
This means that the federal government can cover the cost of free meals for all enrolled students in these districts.
This year, all schools in Mishawaka qualify for CEP.
The Mishawaka School Board approved implementation of the CEP last week.
“I’m very excited about this. Yes, I’m very excited that the kids can just come and eat and not have to worry about having money in their account,” Cupp says.
Elkhart Community Schools also expanded its CEP schools this year so that all students in the district can eat free.
The most recent publicly available Community Eligibility Provision data shows the percentage of students in each Indiana school district who are classified as high poverty students.
The percentages are estimates based on the previous school year.
While data shows that the percentage of identified students in Mishawaka is just over 50%, school leaders say the actual percentage is higher.
District-wide percentage of identified students
John Glenn34.09%
PHM20.89%
Mishawaka50.70%
South Bend 99.97%
Union North 36.07%
Oregon Davis100%
Fairfield 15.8%
Baugo 33.04%
Concordia 40.84%
Middlebury23.63%
WaNee 23.45%
Elkhart 68.60%
Goshen 55.98%
Culver 48.10%
Argos 42.52%
Bremen 35.64%
Plymouth 36.41%
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the expansion would make 3,000 additional schools across the country eligible.
Under this program, all schools in Michigan provide their children with free breakfast and lunch.
According to the USDA, Michigan is one of eight states that, in addition to having eligible schools participate in CEP, has also taken permanent action to ensure that hunger is not a barrier to children’s success.
California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont have also passed state laws allowing schools to provide free healthy school meals to all students.
Although many school districts in Indiana meet or exceed the threshold for offering free meals to all students, they still do not offer free meals to all of their students.
“We just looked at the numbers and realized we can do it,” says Cupp, “but you have to be financially able to cover those costs one way or another.”
Cupp says the higher a county’s ISP, the higher the reimbursement rate.
Schools with higher ISP, such as Mishawaka, receive enough reimbursement funds to cover the cost of meals for all students in the district.
“We’re high enough to break even or even make a small profit, and then that goes right back into the food department. We use that when we need to upgrade our equipment. Things like that,” Cupp says.
When the school board voted unanimously to implement the program, the hall erupted in applause.
“The more the better. They need that nutrition to be able to learn and concentrate on their school work, so we hope that many of them will just eat what is available to them,” says Cupp.
The school administration is convinced that this will help all families in the district, regardless of their income.
The parents agree.
“Especially if they also exercise. They need that fuel, those calories,” says Ruszkowski.
“I think it’s wonderful,” says Miller. “I think it will help parents. Even the people who can afford it, they’ll have one less thing to do in the morning. And for the people who can’t afford it, I think it will be a great gift.”
