BARRE,Vt.—Plans to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students at Barre City Elementary and Middle School starting in the fall have hit a snag because of one of the requirements for participating in the federally subsidized “community eligibility” program.
The school board learned of the glitch on a night when members also agreed to rethink a plan to make a radical scheduling change next fall and were told the district was boasting a sizable surplus heading into the fourth quarter of this fiscal year.
In something of a good-news-bad-news update, George Mackey, of food service contractor Fitz Vogt & Associates, told the board that the city’s pre-K-through-8 school more than qualifies for a U.S. Department of Agriculture program to provide free meals to all students in eligible schools.