• Title: Community Eligibility isn’t for Everyone
• Category:Default
• Date: September 16, 2014

Throughout the state, school districts are opting into a program to provide free meals for all children in their schools.

It is all part of a new federal initiative called Community Eligibility Provision. This program, funded by the USDA, allows schools in high-poverty areas to give free breakfast and lunch to all students without parents having to fill out free lunch forms.

A school, or school system, qualifies if at least 40 percent of students receives food stamps or participates in another federal income-based program.

The state education department reported 38 school districts are participating in the Community Eligibility Provision in some form. Out of those 38 districts, 27 are providing free meals to every school in the district.

In Acadiana, both Acadia and St. Landry parishes signed up for a portion of schools in the district to participate in the program. In Acadia Parish, 69 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and in St. Landry Parish, 80 percent qualify — the highest percentage in Louisiana.

See how many students qualify in every parish by clicking here.

No other school districts in Acadiana applied to take part.

“I think it is a great opportunity to address the needs of parents and children in our system. We are gambling that we are going to have more kids eating and that will cost us more in the end but any time you can gamble on the success of your children I believe it is worth it,” Acadia Superintendent, John Bourque said.

The federal program pays districts to feed students based on a USDA calculation. The higher the poverty level of the school, the more money the school receives from CEP.

Essentially, the federal government will pay for all students who qualify for free meals, plus a portion of the students that have to pay for their lunch.

To participate in the program, the school has to agree that all students enrolled will get free meals.

Nearly 62 percent of Lafayette students qualify for free meals, so why didn’t they participate in the free lunch program being offered?

Lafayette Parish School System’s Child Nutrition Supervisor, Rene Sherville answered that question by saying, “A non-federal funding source has to pick up the cost of those students who are being fed or served meals.”

CEP reimburses all of the students that qualify for free meals through their calculation, then provides a lesser reimbursed amount for students whose lunches could be covered by the family. This means only a portion of the cost of some of the meals would have to be picked up by the school system.

Sherville also said, in Lafayette the district does not want to apply only a portion of the schools, like Acadia and St. Landry did. The school board would rather have the entire district participate.

However, there are six schools in Lafayette where 100 percent of students qualify to receive free meals, a USDA official told KATC. So, if the district chose to cluster the schools with a lower poverty rated school it would make more schools in the district eligible for the free meals.

The dead line to apply for CEP was Aug. 31. It is too late for school districts to participate in the program this school year.

Sherville said that LPSS is looking into CEP for the 2015-2016 school year, hoping to have all schools covered by the provision.