By Marc Schollett
Monday, September 14, 2009 at 11:27 a.m.
Read more: Local, Fact, Finder, Tcaps, Schollett, Marc, School Lunches, Fact Finder
Ask any educator, they will tell you, a hungry child is not an easy child to teach. These days, more and more hungry children and their families are turning to free or reduced cost lunch programs at their schools. After receiving a packet of information from TCAPS, one of our viewers heard that signing up for the program might have big benefits far beyond the cafeteria. She had questions. The answer I found for her is the subject of this Fact Finder.
Paul Soma, TCAPS C.F.O. says almost a third of the students in the district turn to the Free and Reduced Lunch program for a helping hand. As Soma describes it, "Right now the district is at 32% formally. That's last Octobers count. We do know that number is going up. It has been going up for the last few years due to the tough economic times. We expect that to increase above that number."
It's a trend that is rising at TCAPS and at most school districts in Northern Michigan. Every year, more and more families are qualifying and accepting help in the form of the Free or Reduced Lunch Program. If you are new to it here is how it works. TCAPS has a sliding scale between number of family members and income. If you apply, and qualify your student will either get a free meal or lunch for 40 cents or breakfast for 30 cents. The program doesn't cost the district money. It's covered through federal grants and programs. There is lot that happens behind the scenes initially to get a child enrolled, so that very little has to happen once that child is in the cafeteria line. Soma says "students are not identified as they move through the lunch line. They have normal ID badges just like the one that I have here, that is programmed into that. It looks just like everyone else's ID badge so we go to great lengths to make sure that people are not identified as having free lunch."
So you probably don't know which student is getting a free or reduced lunch. You also probably don't know that having more students on the program could actually have a big impact far away from the cafeteria. One of our viewers contacted me after receiving a note from TCAPS. It mentioned how qualifying for the free or reduced lunch program could have additional benefits. She wanted know how. Here's is what I found out for her.
Soma says "We are funded from a variety of different sources. The main source is our foundation grant per pupil. But there are a lot of ancillary sources on top of that. In fact our second largest state revenue comes from what is called our at risk funding. It's a separate categorically it's based on how many students, what percentage of students; the district has that qualify for free and reduced lunch. So it's to the benefit of families if they are on the edge of that not only will they realize a benefit but the school will realize a benefit in that more resources will come our way."
So if a district has more students on free and reduced lunch they receive more funds for things that have nothing to do with food. According to Soma "they fund things like reading recovery programs, other types of literacy programs that we have for the students. They fund a myriad of other supports like technology or supplies and allocations, things like that."
And it's not just extra money from the state. Soma adds that "Federal grants also use the free and reduced percentage. It also comes into play for them. Some competitive federal grants you have to meet a threshold of free and reduced percentage before you are even allowed to apply. So a grant might say unless you have 40% free and reduced lunch you are not eligible for this grant."
Bottom Line TCAPS and every district around the area want to make sure its students are fed. If that means free or reduced lunch, they want to make sure that parents act now. The child will get fed whenever they apply, but in order to qualify for grants and extra funding the district is facing a deadline. Soma says the districts would like to know sooner rather than later, as it's the October percentages that are used for many of the grants.
