Kansas schools may expand free meal programs

New USDA option could mean breakfast and lunch for more low-income kids at no cost to parents

Posted: June 21, 2014 - 4:40pm
Nicole Jahnke leads child nutrition services at Topeka Unified School District 501. She says the district is very excited about a program to expand free lunch services.  FILE PHOTO/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

A new federal program could allow some Kansas schools to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students, at no cost to their families.

Starting this school year, school districts with significant poverty levels will have the option of joining a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that began as a pilot in a handful of states during the past two years.

The option is part of a 2010 law passed by Congress, and the goal is to improve access for children of low-income families to nutritious meals.

That has drawn interest from school administrators and child advocacy groups, who say children who go hungry experience problems not only in terms of health and well-being, but also in terms of their ability to learn at school.

"We are very excited about this program," said Nicole Jahnke, who leads child nutrition services at Topeka Unified School District 501.

"It's about improving access to meals for children who are vulnerable," said Shannon Cotsoradis, CEO of Kansas Action for Children, which is encouraging schools to explore the option.

But deciding whether to take up the USDA on its offer will be a complex choice. Some school districts, such as USD 501, qualify districtwide or for specific schools, and others qualify for specific schools only.

Either way, the districts will need to consider the potential financial effect. If they offer free meals to all students, the USDA will reimburse them but will do so at varying rates depending on poverty-related indicators at their schools.

In the end, these variables may mean school districts will choose to include some, but not all, of their schools depending on potential reimbursement rates for different buildings.

In USD 501, the district is starting off this year by applying to include 12 schools — three middle schools and nine elementaries. Jahnke said she is hopeful the district's applications will be approved.

USD 501 administrators declined to identify the 12 schools, saying the application process is ongoing and the schools therefore haven't yet been notified of the potential changes.

"We would also like to wait a little longer to announce the list of schools because we are concerned it may affect enrollment numbers," USD 501 press contact Megan Ackerman wrote in an email. "We would hate to think families would try to transfer to a 'free lunch' school for that program, only to have it not get approved."

Under federal law, students qualify for free meals or reduced prices based on their family income. For the coming school year, a family of four that earns $31,005 or less qualifies for free meals, for example, or for reduced prices if they earn up to $44,123.

According to the Kansas State Department of Education, about 251,800 of Kansas' approximately 521,100 students received free or reduced-price meals last school year.

But many educators and child advocates think the number of students who qualify may be higher, because parents may not be completing the necessary paperwork or students may be embarrassed about receiving free lunch.

The new program is designed in part to circumvent that and eliminate the stigma families may fear. The federal government also is hoping it will reduce paperwork for schools.

The new option allows schools to offer free meals to all students if the building meets a federal threshold for the percentage of children who qualify automatically for free meals without needing to submit supplementary income data.

Students in this category include those who are homeless, in foster care, receive federal poverty assistance, participate in Head Start or meet other criteria.

Schools with significant percentages of students who qualify under these categories tend to have high percentages of low-income families.

A list of qualifying Kansas districts can be viewed on the state education department's website at http://cjon.co/Tin5OZ. A list of qualifying individual schools can be viewed at http://cjon.co/1ivocGX. Potential federal reimbursement rates for these schools and districts vary.

Follow Celia on Twitter @Celia_LJ.

Comments ( 15 ) sign in or create a profile to comment
Pkinnett 06/21/14 - 05:10 pm
Great. It is about time

something like this happened.

sonofbettysventilator 06/21/14 - 05:21 pm

I long for the days when kids played outside in the good ol' summertime,,
and then ran home to eat lunch then went back outside and when the sun got low in the sky ran home and ate dinner.

it's too bad that parents now a days can't feed their kids breakfast and the schools hafta step in

and then everyone wonders why our schools have no MONEY and our Taxes still keep going up!

Challenger 06/21/14 - 05:47 pm
Poverty Level Income

SOBV…I long for those days, as well. However, as long as the income disparity continues to widen and more and more families fall near to or below the poverty line, these kinds of outcomes seem inevitable. Finding a good job, or jobs, that can raise a family is becoming more and more a very challenging task for many in our society. So, Kansas Republicans give significant tax breaks to the wealthy and push everyone else down the scale a couple of more notches, causing a higher demand for these types of services. We pay one way or the other, eh?

sonofbettysventilator 06/21/14 - 06:19 pm
back in the days we long for


my poor parents and a lotta other poor parents had priorities.
breakfast on the table,
and lunch money in our pockets EVERYDAY!

if they hadda hold off on buying that color tv,, they did.
that car will go on for a few more years if we maintain it.

Here's a box of snakes and Sparklers,,

now eat your hamburger or NO ICE CREAM!

traveler2009 06/21/14 - 09:00 pm
Exactly SOBV

It was all about choices. Our parents prioritized their expenditures and never spent more than they had. Our toys weren't always bought at the store. I spent many hours playing in the bare dirt with sticks and rocks designing roads, farms and communities.

My problem with this is it's more entitlements - I do feel sorry for the kids that don't get fed at home but their parents are probably already getting "food stamps" to feed them so now they get to take that money and trade it for anything else. The kids will still get fed. The BIG question is when those people are getting assistance for food already, why aren't those children being fed at home?

I think it might be a good idea to go back to the olden days of "welfare" where you picked up your block of cheese, sack of beans, powdered or canned milk and made do. At least you know our money really went for food and it was nutritious.

listentoreason 06/21/14 - 11:29 pm

Nearly 2/3 have cable/sat TV.!!!! If you disqualifed everyone who has at least 2 cell phones registered at that address and pays $1000/yr for 200 channels, "poverty" would drop dramatically. I know people that hurt, but the poverty claims are a joke. EVERY week I see people using the welfare card at walmart and getting into nicer cars than I drive. It's a joke for over half. For the other few, our society should help. But welfare has exploded BECAUSE of Obama's policies.

Chanllenger -And too, this president, since the recession ended!!! has overseen greater wage disparity, weakening middle class dollar and more people on the welfare roles that those before him. What about states like KS with Democrats in control. Is California the republicians fault? Kinda tough to blame that on republicans.

CJ pleased do a story on "real" poverty and "tax breaks for the rich" to dispell much of these urban myths.

bogeyman 06/22/14 - 06:58 am
There's that at NO COST to the

Families thing again. They don't say anything about the COST to others not on or in the program. It is going to cost someone something.. Isn't it?

mcbeck 06/22/14 - 07:07 am
How sad

that so many people bluster and whine about feeding breakfast and lunch to children. I'm sure there are a few parents abusing the system, but I'm also sure that many of the parents are working two or more crappy part time, low paying jobs, and this program will help them immensely.

listentoreason, I'd like to know where you got the statistics you posted. I'm guessing you pulled them out of your a.., errr armpit.

John B
John B 06/22/14 - 07:07 am
Why keep forgetting the biggest welfare recipients of all,

the wealthy.

Sammy makes it really clear, he doesn't cut their taxes, he eliminates them.

And if you think property taxes are fair to the poor, look really close at how much big farmers pay (especially considering who wears out roads, and please no whining about feeding us, 3 times as many smaller farmers would do just fine too - just less empires).

kseyetie 06/22/14 - 07:14 am
The rich are broke....

...and now the poor have to pay for it.

Borneoplasm 06/22/14 - 08:48 am

to the USDA (the feds) for feeding the future...our kids...the ones who are hungry. You know - those little guys and gals whose stomachs are empty through no fault of their own. The ones who will have the calories to develop their brains and become happy and productive adults who want to give back to their communities and country. Not the angry-at-the-world ones who want to shoot someone.

Now I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. I worry that the Kansas Tea Party people, with Brownback's blessing, will deny it in Kansas, because they don't think that poor kids should be fed by the government. Or maybe they will say ok, as long as the kid recites some kind of prayer in a prayer group first. One that doesn't include the beatitude about "feeding the hungry." Something like that is coming. I can just feel it.

BrendaWeir 06/22/14 - 10:16 am

People should only have children if they can afford to feed, cloth and care for them. Yes, we should help those children whose parents fail to care for them, but we also need to look for ways to stop irresponsible people from bringing children into this world and not caring for them.

Mr. K
Mr. K 06/23/14 - 08:18 am

don't you think a lot of these families could afford all that at one time? Where have you been?

All I see is this state making it harder for people that can't make it because of what happened with the economy. People who once had good jobs and now work for minimum wage, while our Governor boast of all the jobs he's created.

Topeka_Resident 06/23/14 - 10:36 am
The Duggars may be able to

It takes a very substantial income to be able to afford to properly house, feed, clothe, and educate a large family. If a growing family can not do so for their existing offspring on just half their income (an economic safety factor) they need to seriously reconsider their desire to have more children.

The Duggars may be able to support their huge family without public assistance - most workers could not.

hoppinmad 06/23/14 - 10:55 am
listentoreason- good post

I do not want to see a single child go hungry and I do not mine my tax dollars helping to feed them at least breakfast and lunch. - with that said I recently say a woman pay for a pizza in Casey's with food stamps! My neighbor said she witnessed a person buying a pre made , decorated birthday cake from walmart -paid for with FOOD STAMPS. How can this be?

Food stamps should not purchase premade or fast food! How many cheese sandwiches and cups of tomatoe soup would that birthday cake have paid for I wonder.

Ice cream should be a treat- not an entitlement. I don't want people to be hungry in this our United States. I would never begrudge a child a meal. Nor an elderly or infirm person. I believe we have the responsibility of feeding our people. A decent society does not let their members starve. They do expect family to step up and help when it can.

Feed these kids in school without adding the stigma of welfare food to them but teach them to have pride and compassion so they in turn will feed themselves and some other children some day.

Caesars Ghost
Caesars Ghost 06/23/14 - 01:15 pm
Corporate Welfare is at its

Corporate Welfare is at its largest point in U.S. history while Topekans complain about some kids from very low income families getting to actually have three meals in five days out of seven instead of the seven days out of seven the complainers receive while they turn a blind eye to the trillions of dollars that have gone to corporate welfare.

Way to focus on the pennies while the thieves raid the safe.

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