Free meals for students could be impacted by federal budget cuts
Mar. 12—MASSENA — More than 31,000 north country students could potentially be impacted by proposed changes to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), the program that allows districts to offer free meals to students.
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, has proposed $12 billion in cuts to school breakfast and lunch for the reconciliation, and the House Education and Workforce Committee, which has jurisdiction over school meals and the other federal nutrition programs, has been directed to cut funding for programs within its jurisdiction by $330 billion.
In addition to the CEP cut, proposals include requiring schools to verify the household income of all families approved for free or reduced-price meals rather than using a sampling method.
CEP is a non-pricing meal service option for schools and school districts in low-income areas. CEP allows the nation's highest-poverty schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications. This allows all students in those schools to eat breakfast and lunch at no charge regardless of their family's income.
Schools that adopt CEP are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students categorically eligible for free meals based on their participation in other specific means-tested programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The proposal would increase the CEP eligibility threshold for schools from 25% to 60% of students identified as receiving benefits.
In the 2023 — 2024 school year, one out of every two schools that operated the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participated in CEP, and more than 23 million children had access to healthy school meals at no charge through CEP. Now, according to the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the proposal would force more than 24,000 schools nationwide to drop CEP.
"Congress should be making it easier, not harder, for children to get the meals they need to learn and thrive," Crystal FitzSimons, interim president of FRAC said in a statement. "Community eligibility is a proven success, ensuring tens of millions of students have access to nutritious meals while easing burdens on families and schools. Instead of cutting community eligibility, lawmakers should be expanding it to allow more high-need schools and districts to adopt the option."
"As families struggle to keep up with the rising cost of food, Republicans in Congress are looking at making it harder for millions of children in families with low incomes to get free meals at school. Worse yet, the proposed cuts would be part of legislation that would give massive tax cuts to the wealthiest people and businesses," Zoë Neuberger, a senior fellow at CBPP said in a statement. "Congress should instead focus on removing red tape for schools and families so parents can afford groceries and children can get the meals they need for healthy development."
The two groups released state-by-state fact sheets detailing how proposed cuts to CEP would worsen childhood hunger, hurt struggling families, and create unnecessary burdens for schools and districts. Their list of schools details how many children attend and could be impacted if Congress increases the eligibility threshold to 60% of students identified as receiving benefits. That includes 13,123 students in Jefferson County, 4,119 students in Lewis County, and 14,270 students in St. Lawrence County.
JEFFERSON COUNTY
Alexandria — 477 students
Belleville Henderson — 471 students
Carthage — 3,132 students
General Brown — 1,441 students
Indian River — 3,677 students
LaFargeville — 523 students
Lyme — 344 students
Sackets Harbor — 419 students
South Jefferson — 1,820 students
Thousand Islands — 819
Watertown — N/A
LEWIS COUNTY
Beaver River — 874 students
Copenhagen — 491 students
Harrisville — 341 students
Lowville — 1,353 students
South Lewis — 1,060 students
ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY
Canton — 1,060 students
Clifton-Fine — 265 students
Colton-Pierrepont — 385 students
Edwards-Knox — 533 students
Gouverneur — 1,432 students
Hammond — 244 students
Hermon-DeKalb — 431 students
Heuvelton — 644 students
Lisbon — 566 students
Madrid-Waddington — 640 students
Massena — 2,423 students
Morristown — 327 students
Norwood-Norfolk — 962 students
Ogdensburg — 1,581 students
Parishville-Hopkinton — 353 students
Potsdam — 1,471 students
St. Lawrence — 953 students
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