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SE Valley school meals program: More kids taking part

by Hayley Ringle - Jun. 7, 2011 11:21 AM

The Arizona Republic

More Southeast Valley families are seeking assistance through free and reduced-price meals at public schools as the sluggish economy drags on.

A Republic analysis of state Department of Education data indicates the sour economy's deepening impact on Southeast Valley families between October 2008 and October 2010:

• The 10 Southeast Valley districts have had a 22 percent increase in the number of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunches and breakfasts.

• More students in the region took advantage of the breakfast program.

• More families moved from the reduced-price category to free-lunch status because one or both parents lost jobs or took pay cuts.

• More high schools joined the National School Lunch Program & School Breakfast Program after years of relying on their own districts to provide free or reduced-priced lunches.

At a glance: More figures in graphic at end of story.

"For a long time, even if families qualified, they were embarrassed (to sign up)," said Carol Weekly, director of food nutrition for the Queen Creek Unified School District. "Now, they realize this is definitely a help. They're very appreciative because this is one less thing they have to worry about."

Nationally, the program, which started in 1969, is seeing similar trends.

In 2010, 65.3 percent of all schools participated in the program. That's a 5 percent increase over 2008, according to the National School Lunch Annual summary by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service.

Qualification is based on household income. A family of four that makes $28,665 or less qualifies for a free meal, while a similar family making less than $40,793 a year qualifies for the reduced meals, said Cara Peczkowski, the state Department of Education's school nutrition program director. Chandler Unified School District had one of the region's largest increases in free and reduced-price lunch consumption. Between October 2008 and October 2010, the number of Chandler students eligible for the program soared 53 percent.

That increase resulted partly from Chandler's addition of four high schools to the program in October 2009. The high schools, which have closed campuses for lunch, had not participated for at least 10 years, said Cathy Giza, Chandler's director of nutrition.

Schools are not required to participate in the free and reduced-meal program.

The Chandler district ran its own program to provide students with food assistance but wasn't able to sustain it financially when the economy tanked, Giza said.

"When the economy got difficult, we had more kids that wanted to participate, more kids with less money to spend," she said. "I think it just hit some of our communities out here hard."

Gilbert's two public school districts also had significant increases in free/reduced-price lunch program participation between 2008-10. Gilbert Public Schools had a 34.3 percent increase in participation while Higley Unified's participation grew by 26.9 percent."It appears that more people have less income, thus they have moved from reduced to free status," said Debbie McCarron, Gilbert's director of food services. "Also, we are serving approximately 800 fewer paid students per day districtwide. I think this is due to the economy, and more people are packing their lunches this year rather than purchasing them."

The Tempe Union High School District only recently started participating in the program. Tempe High was added for the 2010-11 school year, and McClintock and Marcos de Niza high schools will join in 2011-12.

Rick Griffith, Tempe's food nutrition director, said he's waiting to see if the program is cost-effective before adding the remaining three high schools. [One question for this government bureaucrat - how can a program that gives away free stuff be "cost-effective"?]

Tempe didn't participate in the past because the district could afford to run its own program. Now, however, Tempe can't afford to offer students a reduced or free meal without seeking assistance from the federal government.

During the 2006-07 school year, the district served 43,000 free meals. That number has risen by almost 15,000 students. From January through to May this year, Tempe served 57,780 free meals, Griffith said.

"Now, we'll help increase the federal deficit," Griffith said. "We need the government to bail us out, because the parents aren't giving their kids any money."

The Mesa district, the state's largest, has eight schools among the 10 schools in the Southeast Valley with the most students on free and reduced-meal programs.

"Families are doubling up in homes," said Traci Grgich, one of five area supervisors for the department. "We've seen an increase in homeless and migrant students. Our participation has increased. Parents, grandparents and foster parents are reaching out to seek assistance."

More on this topic

Top 10 schools for free and reduced eligibility

Here are the schools with the highest free and reduced-cost lunch eligibility numbers in Southeast Valley.

To see the full list of Arizona school's eligibility student numbers, go to www.ade.az.gov/health-safety/cnp/frpercentages.

National numbers are at www.fns.usda.gov/pd/cnpmain.htm.

Numbers are from October.

• Westwood High, Mesa Unified: 2,018.

• Mesa High, Mesa: 1,479.

• Skyline High, Mesa: 1,294.

• Dobson High, Mesa: 1,274.

• Chandler High, Chandler Unified: 1,106.

• Mesa Junior High, Mesa: 906.

• Tempe High, Tempe Union: 836.

• Adams Elementary, Mesa: 815.

• Longfellow Elementary, Mesa: 789.

• Taylor Junior High, Mesa: 779.

Source: Arizona Department of Education