Use of school lunch aid rising

In the Cobleskill-Richmondville Central School District, the number of students receiving free or low-cost meals this year is expected to top 50 percent for the first time ever.

“It’s gotten worse with the recession,” said district Superintendent Lynn Macan.

Statewide, the number of families taking advantage of subsidized school meals is also on the rise, both in low-income districts and in districts serving primarily middle- and upper-middle-class students. School officials attribute the increase to the sluggish economy and the high unemployment rate, which at the end of November was 8.6 percent nationally and 7.9 percent in New York.

At Cobleskill-Richmondville, 41 percent of students were receiving subsidized meals as of the end of October. But Macan said new applications continue to come in every week, and officials expect that half the student body will soon be enrolled in the program. Last year at this time, 38 percent of students in the district were receiving free or low-cost meals.

Sometimes families are reluctant to enroll in the subsidized meal program, Macan said. “In the Schoharie Valley, there’s an extreme sense of pride,” she said. But “if we can help give a child three meals a day, that’s something that helps our community.”

She said many families are dealing with job loss, and some of that is a direct result of the flooding that devastated the county earlier this year. Though her district was mostly spared by the flooding, she said that the cost of dealing with it has caused budget gaps that are leading to layoffs.

According to the state Department of Education, 40 percent of the state’s students were eligible for a free lunch in 2009-10, up from 37 percent in 2007-08. Eight percent of the state’s students were eligible for a reduced-price lunch in both 2009-10 and 2007-08.

In the Schenectady City School District, about 78 percent of students were receiving subsidized meals through the end of November, up from 76 percent at the same time last year.

Karen Corona, a spokeswoman for the school district, said that the number of students receiving free or low-cost meals in the district has been climbing “a little bit each year.”

Corona said students new to the subsidized meal program might fall into one of several categories. They might be new to the district, or their family’s economic situation might have changed. It’s also possible that they would have qualified for the program in the past but never enrolled.

“When they fill out the paperwork, we don’t ask them what their situation is,” Corona said.

In the Mohonasen Central School District, which serves the town of Rotterdam, the number of students receiving subsidized meals has risen from 579 in November 2010 to 651 this November, a 12 percent increase, according to Adrienne Leon, a spokeswoman for the district. There are about 3,000 students in the district.

In the Scotia-Glenville Central School District, the number of students receiving subsidized meals has risen from 530 in January 2010 to 612 in November, a 15 percent increase.

The number of students receiving free lunches outnumber those getting reduced price lunches — in November, 445 students received free lunches, while 167 received reduced-price lunches — and Robert Hanlon, a spokesman for the district, said that a number of families slid from reduced-price lunches to free lunches, “most likely a reflection of the economy. People who were living close to the edge before fell below the threshold because of the economy.”

The district’s total enrollment is 2,711 students.

In the Shenendehowa Central School District, which serves Clifton Park, the number of students receiving subsidized meals has also grown. This month, 1,205 students received free and reduced-price meals, compared to 1,064 in December 2010, a 13 percent change.

Lisa Ostrowski, director of food and nutrition service for Shenendehowa, attributed the climb to the economy but suggested that a new system of enrolling students in the program was also having an impact. Under this system, called direct certification, school districts match student enrollment lists against food stamp records and automatically enroll students whose families are receiving food stamps in the subsidized meal program. If the families want to opt out of the program, they can do so, but the idea is to make it easier for families to access the program by eliminating the need to submit paperwork.

In 2004, Congress passed a law requiring school districts to enroll students in the subsidized meal program using direct certification. According to a recent progress report, 85 percent of the local educational agencies that participate in the National School Lunch Program directly certified some food stamp participants in 2010-11.

Ostrowski said she expects students will continue to enroll in the subsidized meal program.

“Each and every day we get applications and information saying that a parent lost a job,” Ostrowski said. “It’s not surprising. Things seem to be trending that way, and I don’t see anything changing.”

Mark Dunlea, the executive director of the Hunger Action Network of New York, said that the increasing number of students receiving subsidized meals dovetails with the increasing number of people on food stamps. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 46,268,257 Americans were receiving food stamps at the end of September, up from 40,302 and 26,316 in 2007, before the recession. In New York, nearly 3 million people are expected to receive food stamps in 2011, up from 1.8 million in 2007.

“Poverty is up in New York state, so there are definitely more kids who qualify for the [subsidized meal] program,” Dunlea said. “We encourage kids to participate when their parents are having a hard time.”

Nationwide, the number of students receiving subsidized lunches has risen from 18 million in 2006-07 to 21 million last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2011, 18 million students received free meals, while 2.7 million received reduced-price meals and 10.8 million paid full price. In 2007, 15 million students received free meals, 3.1 million received reduced-price meals and 12.6 million paid full price.

The National School Lunch Program is a federal program that is administered through the New York State Department of Education.

Under the program guidelines, children from families with incomes at or below 130 percent of the poverty level are eligible for free meals, and those with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price meals, for which students can be charged no more than 40 cents. The price of meals varies.

In Schenectady, reduced price meals cost 25 cents, compared to a full-price breakfast at $1.75 and a full-price lunch at $2.30 at the elementary school level, $2.50 at the middle school and high school level.

For the period July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2012, 130 percent of the poverty level is $29,055 for a family of four, while 185 percent is $41,348, according to the USDA.

Categories: Schenectady County