Free, discounted school lunches expected to rise this year

The number of pupils who receive free or reduced-cost school meals is expected to reach a four-decade high.

BY HANNAH SAMPSON

hsampson@MiamiHerald.com

The number of South Florida students who got school meals for free or at a discount has shot up over the last year -- and some officials believe the number could continue to rise as the state's economy struggles.

By the end of last school year, more than 350,000 of the region's nearly 578,000 public school students received free or reduced-price lunch.

In Broward, the percentage of children who received aid for school meals pushed just past 50 percent for the first time by the end of last school year -- an increase from the fall of 2008.

Miami-Dade also saw an increase, with more than 67 percent of students getting free meals at the end of the school year, up from about 63 percent when the year began.

Broward Schools Superintendent Jim Notter said he expects more of the same when the school year begins on Monday.

``I definitely think it will go up another couple of percentage points in Broward -- which is a lot of kids,'' he said.

Nationally, the number of students who receive free and reduced-cost meals at school could soar to a 41-year high this school year, as record job losses and high unemployment push thousands more children into poverty, many for the first time.

Notter said that holds true in South Florida as well.

NOT TYPICAL``They're not the group that typically you would say were your inner-city poor,'' he said. ``We're seeing really some upper middle class, middle class students who have never been on any type of federal assistance program go on it. That is a whole new dynamic.''

According to projections by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at least 18.5 million low-income students are expected to participate in the National School Lunch Program each day during the 2009-10 school year. More than 8.5 million are expected to take advantage of the federal School Breakfast Program.

GETTING SUPPORTBoth projections are about the same as the record participation levels that each program set last year.

If rising family homelessness and steady growth in the food stamp program are any indication, however, enrollment in both student-meal programs could swell well beyond expectations this fall.

``I think it's certainly possible and I hope it's true,'' said Jim Weill, the president of the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger nonprofit group. ``I hope students are going to be making it into the program in much larger numbers, because we already know there are more families struggling, and the school meals program is a great way for them to get support.''

Students from families that receive food stamps are automatically eligible for both meal programs. Enrollment in the food stamp program, which was renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program last year, has set a record each of the last six months.

In May, 34.4 million people used food stamps to buy groceries, up 2 percent from April.

Children in homeless families, which include those that are sharing housing with other families, are also eligible for free school meals.

While the total number of homeless Americans held steady last year around 675,000 on any given night, the number of homeless families increased by about 9 percent, said Nan Roman, the president of the nonprofit National Alliance to End Homelessness.

``We expect it will continue to go up this year, and there are indications that that's already happening,'' Roman said.

$2.90 A MEALA report last year by the School Nutrition Association, a professional organization that advocates for children's nutrition found that the average cost to prepare a school meal was $2.90 in the last school year.

However, the USDA's reimbursement rate was only $2.57. This school year, it jumps 4.2 percent to $2.68, but the association says it's still not enough.

President Barack Obama's 2010 budget request calls for a $1 billion increase to federal child nutrition programs. The School Nutrition Association wants Congress to increase school meal reimbursements by 35 cents per meal.

Tony Pugh is with McClatchy News Service's Washington bureau.