North Adams Schools Participating in Free Meals Pilot
 The School Committee approved the implementation of a federal pilot program that will provide free lunch and breakfast to all students in grades preschool through high school. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The public school system is poised to offer free meals to all of its 1,600 students.
The city has been certified under the community eligibility provision of the federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. It is currently awaiting word from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to implement the meals program.
"The potential savings for a single student eating lunch, eating breakfast every day to that parent is $600 a year," Corey Nicholas, food service director, said. "Communitywise, based on how many students we have, is over $78,000."
The School Department had investigated entering the pilot program last year but calculated it would cost the city upwards of $8,000 a month. Nicholas and business manager Nancy Ziter continued to look into the eligibility requirements and attended some training on the act.
"I think the state did a better job synching the different data and information and eligibility of community residents and the numbers looked much more favorable this year," Superintendent James Montepare told the School Committee on Tuesday.
The pilot program assesses low-income and poverty needs based on a number of factors instead of relying on applications for free and reduced lunch. Boston was the first in the state to successfully implement the program and Pittsfield last week decided to participate with its elementary and middle schools.
The cafeteria program and offerings won't change; the only difference will be the way the city is reimbursed by USDA. It will also reduce administrative costs.
Based on the number of students currently getting breakfast and lunch, the reimbursement would be $12,210 a year more. An increased participation of 5 percent would raise it by $30,000. Nicholas said the guaranteed income over the next four years could make the food service department self-sustaining.
Of greater benefit is the fact there will be no more stigma or potential for stigma attached to those receiving free or reduced lunch, or having to get a substitute lunch because of delinquent accounts.
"One of my favorites is no more chasing after negative balance accounts," Nicholas said.
At one point, outstanding bills were more than $20,000 but that has been reduced to about $2,500.
Montepare said the program would help those families on the cusp of reduced lunch eligibility.
"Now students who make [above] the threshold but don't eat because they don't have the $2.10 in their pocket, those will be the kids who participate," he said.
The superintendent thought the potential for a 5 percent increase in hot lunch participation was "very, very conservative." A state auditor recently reviewing the lunch program thought a 10 percent increase was more likely.
"It's good for our citizens and it's good for North Adams," he said.
The School Committee also raised the prices of the lunches in accordance with federal regulations, even though they will not be implemented for students. The current lunch program is below the federal threshold of $2.70.
Breakfast will increase from $1.10 to $1.15 and lunch from $2.10 to $2.20. Adult breakfast and lunch will go from $2 to $2.10 and $3.75 to $4, respectively.
Tags: North Adams School Committee, school lunch, USDA,
