June 8-The U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to extend the 17-year-old Universal Feeding Program at the 167,000-student School District of Philadelphia, reversing the decision last November to cancel the program. Instead, the program will continue through the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act.
In the program, all students in schools with at least a 75% low-income population receive free breakfasts and lunches, regardless of their parent's economic status. The decision to end the program had been met with strong opposition from district officials, the community and several state senators.Wayne Grasela, senior vice president in charge of the district's foodservices, said it would cost the district $800,000 a year to collect and process applications for free- and reduced-priced meals. "We will be taking huge steps back if we have to do this," he said. "We have the technology [to make collecting applications irrelevant], and we're returning to a system recognized in 1990 as not being effective."
The program began in 1991 as a way for the district to eliminate the need for paper applications. Instead, the district commissioned a survey from Temple University to determine the percentage of those students in each school who qualified for free- and reduced-priced meals. The survey showed that 200 of the nearly 300 schools had a high percentage of low-income students. The district then decided that in those schools that had at least a 75% low-income population, every student would receive free breakfast and lunch every day. The district would only claim the actual number of students who qualified for free- and reduced-priced meals as determined by the survey for reimbursement from the federal program. For example, if a 100-student school had a 70% free percentage, 10% reduced percentage and 20% paid percentage, the district would claim 70 free meals and 10 reduced meals.
Grasela said because the stigma of free lunch was removed, more students participated in the meal programs, especially in the secondary schools. He said the increase in participation offset any lost revenue the district would have received from students who did not qualify for free or reduced meals and who were now receiving meals for free. In the first year of the pilot, lunch participation increased 180% in the high schools and breakfast overall increased 26%.
Other large districts including New York City and Los Angeles have expressed interest in starting similar programs for their students.