As school lunch waivers expire, school officials encourage more applications
Jul. 7—After a federal waiver ended last week that provided free school meals to students across the country for two years regardless of income, school officials are encouraging low-income families to submit free and reduced lunch applications by the second week in August or they will have to pay full price for the meals.
Parents of students in Decatur City Schools, Morgan County Schools and Lawrence County Schools can fill out an application by accessing the school systems' websites and clicking on the child nutrition program tab. A link to the application, family.titank12.com, is posted in that tab.
Julie Bone, child nutrition program director for Morgan County Schools, said the district started accepting applications Friday and has already received several.
"In 24 hours, we've received 150 applications," Bone said Wednesday.
Bone said the applications help fund Title 1 schools, or schools where at least 40% of the student population comes from low-income families. She said she encourages all parents to fill out the applications, even if they get denied.
"It's so important that everyone fills it out that possibly can whether you think you will be eligible for it or not," Bone said. "That number (of applicants) still helps our system because it's giving a better description of the population that we actually serve."
Devin Williamson, child nutrition program director for Decatur City Schools, said her district also began accepting applications on Friday, but has received "not that many."
"That's fairly typical for this time during the summer, but we would love for as many people to apply in the summer as possible," Williamson said.
On June 25, Congress passed the Keep Kids Fed Act that will provide schools with extra resources like federal reimbursements and extending waivers that finance summer meal programs regardless of income. Under the law, however, families will need to apply for subsidized meals by providing financial information to the district, and may have to pay a reduced price for lunches when they received free meals in the past.
"In my eyes, the bill did not pass as many things as we would like for it to have, but it is going to allow for things that we are still struggling with and that is getting certain foods in and allowing us to have some flexibility with that," Bone said.
Michelle Chenault, child nutrition program director for Lawrence County Schools, said she welcomes the reimbursements the law outlines but would still like for all students, regardless of household income, to receive free meals as they did under pandemic legislation.
"We really needed to be where all of the children eat at no cost again," Chenault said. "The families in our county needed a little bit more of a break."
Ellen Watson, administrative assistant for Lawrence County Schools, said the district had 60% of students apply for free and reduced lunch in the 2019-2020 school year, the last year before free meals were provided regardless of income.
Along with the federal waiver ending, food costs continue to rise across the nation and Morgan County Schools have had to omit certain food items from their menus as a result.
"There are things that have doubled in price, but there are also things that have tripled and there's some that have almost quadrupled in price since two-and-a-half years ago," Bone said. "We've had to take some things off our menu, like chicken wings, because we just flat out can't afford to keep purchasing things that high of a price."
Chenault said she has not looked at the menu for next school year, but said her district was not able to maintain nutritional guidelines last school year as a result of food shortages.
"We definitely have not been able to meet all of the subgroups under certain vegetables, so those items have been limited," Chenault said.
Chenault said she will continue to work with local farms in Lawrence County to provide fresh vegetables and fruits for the district.
— wesley.tomlinson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.
