In the face of a proposal to curtail a program allowing free school meals for all children in high-poverty areas, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told lawmakers, “It would be unwise to roll back standards, saddle parents and school administrators with more paperwork or weaken assistance to our most vulnerable children.” The cutback is part of a proposal by the Republican leaders of the House Education Committee for renewal of child-nutrition programs costing $22 billion a year.
The Community Eligibility Provision — the program allowing universal meal coverage — is an undeniable success, Vilsack said in a statement. It’s in the second year of operation nationwide and has attracted 18,000 schools, about half of all eligible schools, according to a report from the anti-hunger Food Research and Action (FRAC) and the think tank Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).
The discussion draft circulated by Education Committee leaders would raise the threshold for schools to join the program to 60 percent of “identified students,” from the current 40 percent. Identified students are pupils automatically eligible for free meals because they are part of programs such as food stamps. The category does not include students who qualify for free meals because their families fill out applications. “Schools that are eligible for community eligibility typically have a much higher percentage of low-income students than their ISP [identified student percentage,” says the report by FRAC and CBPP.
Vilsack said “many of these students rely on school meals as their best source of nutritious food … I urge Congress to stay the course in child nutrition.” Two of Vilsack’s goals for the nutrition reauthorization bill are greater enrollment in school breakfast and expansion of the summer food program.
The House draft also would eliminate the so-called paid-lunch equity requirement, said the School Nutrition Association (SNA), which represents school-food directors. The requirement calls on schools to charge more for full-price meals so they collect at least as much money per meal as the government reimbursement for a free meal. Backers say the requirement prevents the school-lunch program from subsidizing meals for students who don’t need financial help.
The SNA, which opposes the change in community eligibility, said “the bill’s proposed elimination of Paid Lunch Equity Requirements, return to a five-year Administrative Review cycle and mandates to streamline administrative requirements will ease burdens on school meal programs and allow them to focus on serving students.”
The Senate Agriculture Committee approved its version of the child-nutrition bill in late January, headlined by an expansion of the summer food program and a slowdown in rules on salt levels and whole grains in meals. There is no increase in funding for child nutrition in the Senate bill. The expansion in summer food would be offset by more stringent enforcement of eligibility rules for free or reduced-price meals.
Some 30.5 million children eat a hot meal each day through the school-lunch program, the largest of the child-nutrition programs. Nearly three-quarters of the meals are provided free or at a reduced-price. The school breakfast program has an average 8.9 million participants while the summer food program feeds 2.3 million children a day at its peak.