Switching to a system where, at some schools, all kids can eat for free has had unintended consequences.
• Providing free meals to all students gives some schools an edge under Georgia’s school-rating system. If Gov. Nathan Deal’s Opportunity School District plan is approved this fall, those ratings could be used to identify low-performing schools the state could close. But schools can earn extra points if they have more students eligible for free or reduced-price meals or who fall into other categories.
• The new everyone-eats-free model could hurt low-income students under a proposal for funding Georgia schools the Legislature is expected to take up next year. That proposal would give schools with more low-income students more money. But it would measure poverty by receipt of government assistance, rather than eligibility for free lunches. Changing the measuring stick would cut Georgia’s number of low-income students nearly in half, said Claire Suggs of the Georgia Policy and Budget Institute. That means some schools where many students’ families make just above the limit for food stamps or other programs but still struggle financially might not get money for extra tutors, supplies and programs.
“Our concern is just making sure that we’re not missing students who would benefit from additional resources,” Suggs said.
For a growing number of Georgia children, there is such a thing as a free lunch — and free breakfast and dinner too.
Recent expansions of the 70-year-old National School Lunch Program means more schools now offer free meals to all students, whether or not their parents can afford to pay.
Some legislators say children whose parents can afford to pay shouldn’t eat for free.
"If those children who are getting a free lunch can afford it … then we can take those monies that we're spending on that program and spend it on other programs," said U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter of southeast Georgia, who supports a federal bill that would limit which schools can offer free meals to all students.
At issue is the part of the Obama administration's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 that allows schools where at least 40 percent of students' families receive government assistance, such as food stamps, to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students.
Today, about 700 Georgia schools offer free meals to all students under the new program. Some schools also feed students in sports or other after-school activities free dinner under a separate federal program.
In Atlanta, about 60 schools participate in the program, according to state data published by the Food Research and Action Center. Both Fulton and DeKalb county schools have about 20 schools that participate. In Clayton County, every school does.
No schools in Cobb or Gwinnett counties participate, according to the Food Research and Action Center data. In both counties, students who apply and qualify for free or reduced-price meals still get those meals.
Gwinnett County would likely lose money by participating because federal reimbursements wouldn’t cover the full costs of meals served, especially for students whose families don’t necessarily get government assistance but do qualify for reduced-price meals, Gwinnett County school nutrition director Ken Yant said in a written statement.
The new program, called the Community Eligibility Provision, means teachers don't have to collect applications from students or contribute their own money when children forget their lunch money, said Donna Martin, nutrition director for Burke County schools south of Augusta.
Parents don’t have to fill out an application. District staff no longer spend hours verifying family information. And kids don’t have to worry about whether they’ll get lunch.
“They know they can always eat. They don’t have to worry about digging in their pocket for lunch money,” Martin said. “It makes all the kids in the lunchroom equal … no one says, ‘That kid’s on free lunch.’ ”
Some House Republicans want to revise the everyone-eats-free model by requiring at least 60 percent of students at a school to be on government assistance before their school can offer free meals to all.
"Before you get reimbursed as a school for giving everyone lunch … let's make sure a majority of them actually qualify for it," Rep. Todd Rokita, the Indiana Republican who introduced the proposal to raise the limit, told the Indianapolis Star earlier this year.
That proposal, one part of a larger child-nutrition bill, was approved by a House committee this spring with the support of both Georgia congressmen on the committee, Carter and Rep. Rick Allen.
Carter’s office estimated the proposal would save about $1.5 billion over ten years.
The Community Eligibility Provision has generally been a good program, he said.
“But like all programs it needs to be streamlined, it needs to be updated, and we need to make sure that we’re using it in the best way possible.”
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