More capital region students qualify for subsidized lunch

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Posted April 27th, 2011 by Charlotte Draper No Comments »

You can see the fallout of the sluggish job market in the school lunch line.

Continuing a trend that started in urban school districts not long after the nation’s economy took a dive, suburban districts in the Sacramento region have seen a surge in the number of students signing up to receive free or reduced-price lunches through their schools.

Even solidly middle-class suburbs such as Roseville, northeast of Sacramento, are seeing the impact. At Roseville High, the number of students eligible for free and reduced-priced lunch jumped from 373 in October 2006 to 624 in October 2010, according to state Department of Education data.

In middle-class Fair Oaks, the number of eligible students at Del Campo High rose from 286 to 784 during that period.

Similar stories are mirrored across the region: Taken together, the number of students eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches in Sacramento, Yolo, El Dorado and Placer counties increased by about 25,000, or 17 percent, over the four-year span.

The increase was steeper in the region’s wealthiest schools, which saw a 66 percent increase in students eligible for the program.

Measured another way: Just more than 48 percent of the region’s students were eligible for free or reduced-price meals in 2010, up from 42 percent in 2006.

“We are seeing more and more families living in poverty,” said Glynn Thompson, chief academic officer for San Juan Unified, a sprawling school district serving eastern Sacramento County.

Under federal guidelines, students are eligible for a free school lunch if their families earn less than $28,665; they are eligible for a reduced-price meal if their families earn less than $40,793.

While the economic downturn has been a driving factor in more families turning to schools to feed their children, district officials acknowledge that they have put greater emphasis on enrolling students into the program in recent years. The federal government uses that data to determine how much funding schools receive from the federal Title I program, which provides extra money for schools with high poverty rates.

Some districts have been getting right to the point.

In 2009, banners and electronic signs at schools in Twin Rivers Unified in northern Sacramento County declared that signing up students for the meals program meant more money for schools. Automated phone calls home in multiple languages also conveyed the message.

“There are a lot of families that, for whatever reason religious or dietary don’t want their students to eat in the cafeteria,” said spokeswoman Trinette Marquis. “The message was designed to say they need to make sure their schools get these resources.”

The district had a 30 percent increase in meal program applications that year, Marquis said. Among larger local districts, Twin Rivers Unified has the highest percentage of students enrolled in the program, at 79 percent.

Other districts take a more casual approach. Roseville Joint Union High School District in Placer County spreads the word to needy students individually and in small groups, said John Montgomery, assistant superintendent.

Students are sometimes too embarrassed to sign up for the program, and districts battle the stigma in inventive ways.

“We try to be discreet and make sure kids get a good meal,” Montgomery said. “They have a card with a (special) number, so it does not draw attention.”

In Sacramento City Unified, Elk Grove Unified and San Juan Unified, all students are issued PIN codes to pay for lunch. There is no way to know whether the student is getting a federally subsidized lunch or whether parents have deposited money into the account, said Elizabeth Graswich, spokeswoman for Elk Grove Unified.

The need is being felt more acutely in the region’s urban districts. In Sacramento City Unified, 69 percent of students are enrolled in the meal program.

“Right now, we have a lot of kids that want to eat,” said Brenda Padilla, manager of nutrition services for the district. “In that sense our business is good.”

School officials say more families in general are looking for services and referrals to help make ends meet. Many, they said, are “untraditional” families, seeking help for the first time.

In San Juan Unified, services are meted out at a central office. Students can sign up for school lunches, visit the clothes closet, meet with a homeless liaison and get referrals for social services.

San Juan Unified opened its center three years ago and operates it with Title I dollars. Sacramento City Unified will open a similar center next door to its district headquarters on Monday.

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