Stratford Board of Education Considers Free Lunch for All

STRATFORD, CT -- At a recent Stratford Board of Education meeting, the Board has discussed applying for Universal Free Lunch. The Program, which is federally funded, is known as "Community Eligibility." The program is a tool for high-poverty schools and districts to provide free meals at no cost. The program also cuts down on administration costs as it eliminates the need for parents to fill out paperwork, and for staff to process said paper work. Over 3,538 districts nation wide participate in the Community Eligibility program.

The program counts only those children who receive SNAP(Supplimental Nutrition Assistance Program) or TANF(Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) as poor. Children who do not qualify for those two programs, or who get reduced lunch will not be counted and may not be eligible for title 1 funding.

The program aims to eliminate the stigma associated with free and reduced lunch. The program also boasts that it maximizes Federal funding. However, in cities like Baltimore, where they have a high rate of immigrant children, this has had the effect of some schools losing title 1 funding. As those families who are immigrants do not qualify for SNAP or TANF.

There are many positives to this program and a few drawbacks. The Community Eligibility program would ensure that all Stratford students, regardless of household income, would be ensured two meals a day. This program would take some financial burden off of the school system as well. Because this will count our poverty stricken children differently, on paper it will make our town seem that we have less of a percentage of disadvantaged families. As stated above, and in my opinion, the best reason, it would take the stigma that is associated with the free and reduced lunch program. If all children are equal in that they receive free school breakfast and lunch, there is no stigma that school lunch is for poor children only. Couple this with school uniforms and we have a winning formula where our disadvantaged children won't be singled out for circumstances they can't control.

One of the drawbacks is the possible loss of Title 1 funding in some of our schools, due to how they will count poverty stricken children. Another is of course, how many more children would actually participate? Many parents dislike school lunches due to them not being balanced or nutritious. Since the program would not be mandatory, would we see an increase in the amount of students eating school breakfast and lunch? Which schools could possibly see a decrease in Title 1 funding? Would the powers that be change how we count Title 1 eligible students?

As always, I encourage every reader to do their own research into this program and then make up their own mind.

Edit: At last night's meeting the BOE voted to approve the program.

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