Federal free school meal program ends; some districts still offer free meals to all students

Sep. 11—TRAVERSE CITY — As the new school year starts, area schools are working to make sure parents know to apply for free and reduced-price lunches again this year.

Pandemic-era free meals for all students came to an end this summer, but some schools are able to continue to offer free meals to all of their students.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Congress passed legislation that granted federal waivers for food assistance programs, including waivers that made school breakfasts and lunches free to all students, regardless of their families' incomes.

For the past two school years, families did not need to apply for free or reduced price school meals. Instead, all students were granted free meals, and the federal government reimbursed schools at a higher rate per meal.

Millions of children benefited as a result of these waivers, but Congress allowed them to expire June 30.

Starting this school year, parents and guardians will need to again fill out new applications for free or reduced-price meals each year, unless they are notified by their school district that they are already approved. Anyone can apply, regardless of citizenship status, and parents or guardians only need to fill out one application per household.

Schools typically send out the applications to their school districts, but there is also an online version of the application for the 2022-23 school year and information on federal income eligibility guidelines for free meals or reduced-price meals, parents and guardians on the state of Michigan's website under the Michigan Department of Education section.

For a family of four, an annual salary of $36,075 qualifies students in that household for free meals.

While the free meals for all program has ended, some school districts will continue to offer free meals to all families without collecting applications through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a U.S. Department of Agriculture program.

Schools where 40 percent or more of the students are eligible for free school meals without an application — because they have been identified by another program as low income or they are considered at risk of hunger — can participate in CEP. According to data from the Food Research and Action Center for the 2021-22 school year, a majority of schools in the Northwest Education Services Intermediate School District are eligible or near-eligible for CEP.

Suttons Bay Schools is one such school district that qualifies for CEP and is participating in the program for its K-12 students this year. However, the federal government is now offering a lower reimbursement rate for school meals to school districts.

Suttons Bay families won't see a difference in the quality or amount of food being offered, but the school district will likely have to pull thousands of dollars from their general budgets to pay for food costs, said Superintendent Casey Petz said.

"It just means we've got to spend a little bit less money on something else," Petz said.

Petz said he was happy with the way that universal free meals worked the past two years, and he would like it to continue for the sake of the families and students. He added that, when the need for paperwork is eliminated and things like getting children free meals is simplified, then communities and schools can focus on improving it. In this case, that means improving food quality and focusing on where the food is being sourced from.

"It's just a huge, huge deal to shift the burden back to families here," Petz said. "The free lunch for everyone program has done a lot of good for our school, and it's reduced some anxiety for families but also eliminated food anxiety in a number of our kids."

In Traverse City Area Public Schools, Blair and Traverse Heights Elementary School are the only two in the district that qualify for the CEP, and both participate, said Superintendent John VanWagoner.

As for the 14 other schools in the school district, VanWagoner said TCAPS has been communicating regularly with families that they need to fill out applications for free and reduced price lunches again this school year. It's too early in the school year to tell where their applications numbers are at compared to the years prior to the pandemic, but VanWagoner said he's a little concerned that parents still are unaware of the change or unsure if they should apply.

In order to make sure no kids go hungry, TCAPS will give students free meals if they come to school hungry and without money to pay, even if they haven't filled out an application, and the price of the meal comes out of the district's food service budget.

"If we're notified that a kid's hungry and doesn't have the money for lunch, we're still going to try and find a way," VanWagoner said.

VanWagoner said he wishes that Congress renewed the universal free lunch program for another year so they could see how well it would work during a year with fewer supply chain issues related to food availability.

Other schools in the area, like Kingsley Elementary School, qualify for CEP but do not participate. This is because running CEP means that the school district has to make up the difference and pay for the meals that the students who don't qualify for free meals receive, said Kristy Donner, Kingsley Area Schools Food Service Director.

But, Kingsley schools is offering free breakfast to all students through December with money from their food service budget to offer relief to families as they make the switch from the last two years. The district is also offering cheaper prices for reduced price school meals, Donner said.

So far, Kingsley has seen a good number of applications from families flowing in, but the number of kids buying meals at school is down. Donner said this is partly concerning, but she thinks it could also be attributed to the fact that it's the beginning of the new school year.

To make sure families knew that they needed to apply this year, Donner said the school district notified parents that they need to apply again through social media, school communications, emails, newsletters and postcards.

Donner said she liked how the federal government handled the free meals for all program during the past two years, and she would like to see it continue. Knowing that your school will provide food to you means that there is one less stressor for families and students to manage, she said.

"I don't think a child should have to worry about if they have funds for meals or not no matter what their household income or what, they shouldn't have to worry about any of that," Donner said. "They should worry about getting to school and attending school."