The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Demand for kids' discount lunch programs rising

Requests for free, reduced-price school lunches rising

Is your “unlimited” data being throttled?
2:32 p.m.
Kasich wants 100 gigabits per second state network, smarter smartphones
2:07 p.m.
Cracker Barrel manager accused of embezzling $2K
2:07 p.m.
Benefit dinner held for girl who died in car accident
2:00 p.m.
Wright-Patterson relatively unscathed in Obama defense budget
1:46 p.m.
> More headlines

By Anthony Gottschlich, Staff Writer Updated 12:05 AM Sunday, June 21, 2009

As nutrition director for Fairborn City Schools, Paula Montgomery is accustomed to calls from parents looking for a price break on school lunches, but never to the level — in sheer numbers and desperation — of the school year just ended, she said.

“It’s been terrible,” Montgomery said, her voice filling with emotion. “We’ve had mothers calling, crying, they had no idea (about a free and discount lunch program) and they’ve been laid off. It’s horrible.”

Such is the case across the nation, yet another indicator of the economic times. Applications for free and reduced-price lunches increased in most states in the 2008-09 school year, reaching nearly 20 million nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In Ohio, 516,355 applications for free lunches were filed in February 2009, a 7.93 percent jump from the previous year. Another 98,000 applied for discounted lunches, a near 4 percent hike from February 2008.

Montgomery said Fairborn has seen at least a 20 percent increase since last year, far outpacing the 8 percent jump from 2006 to October 2008, data from the Ohio Department of Education show.

Kettering, too, is feeling the demand, seeing a 4 percent jump in applications since last year, more than double the usual rate for the 7,000-pupil suburban district.

“We are seeing more families applying for the first time,” said Louise Easterly, the school district’s food and nutrition supervisor.

The heightened demand, combined with inflation, labor costs and low reimbursement rates from the state and federal government, is forcing district leaders to make hard decisions about the food they deliver to children and the employees who serve it.

Budget pressures

Districts get a federal reimbursement for each free lunch served, but it typically comes up short.

Dayton, for example, gets $2.59 for each free lunch served, but it costs the district $2.89 in food and labor to produce a meal, said Stephen Grundy, the school district’s nutrition services director.

Additionally, Dayton is a Provision 2 school district, meaning all students in grades pre-kindergarten to eighth grade are provided free meals. By doing that — three-quarters of the students qualify for free and reduced-priced lunches anyway — the district is relieved of some of the bureaucratic hassles and paperwork, including collecting discount meal applications every year. It also reduces the stigma students might feel about getting a free lunch.

The federal government only reimburses for those who qualify for assistance, however, leaving school districts to come up with the rest. “That’s why it’s difficult for us to make budget,” Grundy said.

Grundy’s budget soared to $9.2 million in 2007-08, about $1.4 million in the red. But reimbursement rates aren’t the only factor weighing the budget down, he and other district officials said. The district lost about $1 million in revenue when it stopped providing meals for charter schools three years ago, said Grundy and district Treasurer Stan Lucas. But the district didn’t immediately adjust its staff levels, leaving labor costs higher than they should have been.

Grundy said he’s found ways to trim labor and other costs since then, but his department continues to struggle. Now Lucas and Superintendent Kurt Stanic want to hire an outside company to provide pre-packaged meals for the district’s 10,000 elementary students, a move they say could save the district $500,000 in the first year alone. The school board has put the service up for bid. Hiring an outside food service management company could come next.

“We operate the biggest restaurant in the city,” Stanic told the board. “The money to take care of the deficit is coming out of the general fund. We can’t keep incurring million dollar-a-year losses. It’s bad business.”

But Grundy thinks food quality and students will suffer under the plan because outside companies are more interested in profit than nutrition. Vendors can’t beat the district on food costs, he said, judging from the numbers he’s seen. And if fewer students eat the meals, “now you’ve created another issue.”

“We’re doing the labor cuts anyway, regardless of whether we provide the meal or an outside company provides the food,” Grundy said. “So where’s the savings?”

Fresh versus canned

Kettering’s nutrition department hasn’t faced the same pressures as Dayton’s, but rising food costs have forced some tough decisions, said Easterly, the nutrition supervisor. The district has had to choose products cheaper and less nutritious for children — going with canned fruit and vegetables over fresh, for example, and passing on whole grain products for white bread.

“We were caught just like everyone else,” she said. “Going to the grocery store, you have to make some adjustments and live within your means.”

Easterly successfully appealed to the district for a bump in resources this fall, which will allow her to again go with fresh and whole grain products.

Established in 1948, the National School Lunch Program serves about 31 million students in schools and residential child care institutions during the school year.

To qualify for a free lunch, a family of four can have an income of no more than $27,560 per year under the 2008-09 federal guidelines. For a reduced-price lunch, the limit is $39,220.

According to the USDA, President Obama’s budget request includes an additional $1 billion per year to expand program access, promote the diets of school children and improve program performance and integrity.

“This is the best deal a family could ever come across,” said Cecelia Torok, associate director of the Office for Safety, Health and Nutrition in the Ohio Department of Education. “There’s families who end up on food stamps or having to visit food banks to help supplement their income. This is a way for those families to make it through those tight times.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7408 or agottschlich@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Share this article