By HOLLY GASKILL
For the first time in two years, families with K-12 students will have to pay for breakfast and lunch at school.
Congress had introduced universal free lunches to ensure every child was able to eat and ready to learn amidst the financial stress of the pandemic. While, according to the Pew Research Center, inflation is almost four times what it was during the first quarter of 2020, Congress cut the program earlier this year.
Because of this, local school food service directors have expressed apprehension for the upcoming school year — the first “normal” academic year for food service since 2018-19.
“As a food service director, I am disappointed we didn’t get to keep (free lunches),” said Raina Sisson, director for Northern Wells Community Schools. “No child had to worry about where their next meal was coming from. I’ve seen that, and I don’t want kids to have to worry … My job is to feed kids and to keep them healthy.”
In Wells County, about 29 percent of NWCS students qualify for free and reduced lunches, roughly 50 percent of Bluffton-Harrison Metropolitan School District students qualify, and an estimated 38 percent of Southern Wells Community Schools qualify.
All of the Wells County schools have chosen to keep the same prices for the upcoming school year despite rising food prices.
“We want kids to eat — that’s our job,” Sisson said. “We know it is a choice for our kids to come to eat, so I try to keep the meals as affordable as possible.”
Full-price lunches will be priced as follows: NWCS, $2.75 for elementary, $2.85 for middle school and $2.95 for high school; BHMSD, $2.75 for elementary and middle school and $2.85 for high school; SWCS, $2.50 for elementary and $2.75 for junior-senior high school.
As a member of the School Nutrition Association, Sisson had written letters to and spoken with congressmen asking to extend the free lunch program.
“I think this really helped our families that may have been without jobs, that may have been above the income levels (for free and reduced lunch) but budgets were stretched very thin,” Sisson said. “This allowed them to not have to worry about where their kid’s lunch was going to come from … I think that, for some families, this will create food insecurity.”
Sisson believes the hardest hit will be households who only qualify for reduced lunch and cannot afford the cost. This upcoming school year, she said she anticipates more student accounts dipping into negative numbers and seeing more children in the cafeteria not eating lunch.
“It’s going to hit a lot of us,” said Robin McCorkle, food service director for BHMSD.
McCorkle said about 85 percent of her district’s students took advantage of the free lunch, and the number of students eating breakfast doubled.
While some students were not necessarily in need, McCorkle said she was happy to provide an accessible hot, balanced meal. Even in families without apparent financial need, she said, students may not have a parent or guardian available to provide a nutritious breakfast and lunch.
McCorkle, a graduate of Bluffton High School, has more than 20 years of school food service experience — almost all of which has been with BHMSD.
“Every child that comes into my lunchroom I view as my child,” McCorkle said. “So I want to give them the best I can give them, and it’s hard sometimes when money is an issue for a parent.”
She continued, “I struggle with (lunches) being paid again because you know there are kids who walk through the lunchroom with a friend, and they don’t get lunch. And you always wonder, ‘Is this a cost thing? Is this a choice?’ It’s hard to watch — and I didn’t see that when lunch was free.”
Chris Mossburg, food service director for SWCS, encouraged all families to apply for free and reduced lunches. The income guidelines for free and reduced lunch have increased in light of inflation, though not matching inflation, and may open up more families to qualify than before.
Households using Medicaid and SNAP or TANF programs are automatically qualified; any children in foster care also automatically qualify.
Applications will be available at school registrations. Households will need to provide the number of their dependents, total income, and the last four digits of a social security number of a guardian.
Each director encouraged families to communicate with the schools if they encounter a need.
“Grocery costs and gas costs alone now are crazy for parents … having lunch taken care of was probably just the most wonderful feeling. I’m really sad to see it go, I truly am,” McCorkle said.
holly@news-banner.com
