The Athens City School District's Eligibility Provisions program free and reduced lunches are at stake because of federal grant funding freezes.
The freeze ordered by the Trump administration would not affect certain programs, such as Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, but there is still uncertainty around other programs.
A federal judge agreed Feb. 25 to continue blocking Trump’s administration from freezing grants and loans, according to the Associated Press.
With this, the federal government is also considering raising the threshold for how many students a school must have to qualify for the CEP program.
Chad Springer, associate superintendent of ACSD, said the government will always provide for the disadvantaged youth within schools, or those who qualify for the program, but he is worried about the other students in the district.
Currently within ACSD, nearly 45% of students qualify for a free or reduced lunch, Springer said. If the federal government were to raise the qualification for funding to around 60%, most schools in Ohio would be disqualified from the program.
“Imagine if your family is just above that threshold, and this week you can't afford a school lunch. That's where our concern is coming from,” he said.
Springer said he is also concerned about the stigma kids would face if they could not afford the school lunch for a variety of reasons.
ACSD CFO and Treasurer Jared Bunting shared this concern, saying it’s important that this program takes away the stigma of other people knowing whether someone qualifies for a free or reduced-cost lunch.
Springer said the school district enrolled in the CEP program under the impression they would have free and reduced lunch costs for up to four years.
“Right now, we're OK for this year because we've already been part of the program,” Springer said. “How does it affect next year? How fast does the federal government make changes?”
Under the CEP program, the school gets reimbursed for each student depending on if they purchase school lunch, get it at a reduced cost or if it’s free.
“We do receive a little bit for paid lunch, we would receive 42 cents per student on a free lunch that's picked up, $4.03 on a reduced student's lunch and $4.43 for free (students),” Bunting said.
Bunting also said the food service department typically runs a deficit covered by the district’s general fund, and this gets worse under the CEP program because the number of kids being fed has increased by 20%.
Before joining the CEP program, Bunting said the general fund usually covered around $100,000 of the food services losses, and now it covers roughly $300,000.
“There's lots of studies out there that show a kid that is not hungry or worried about where their next meal is coming from and is going to perform better at school,” Bunting said. “It's kind of one of those things we have to weigh the pros and cons of.”
Timarie Francis, ACSD director of food services, said several changes had been made within the cafeteria to accommodate the increasing number of students getting lunch under the CEP program.
Some changes include altering staffing patterns to accommodate the increased meals and number of students going through the lunch lines.
If the program were to disappear next year, Francis said all those changes would have to be undone.
Bunting said there is not much the school can do if the program is taken away, and things would have to go back to the way it was before the program.
“We'd have to start charging for lunches again and be collecting money for things other than just the a la carte items that kids want to buy extra of,” Bunting said. “The longer you're on a program like this, the harder it's going to be to go back.”
Francis said a program like this is important for breaking barriers for students who may only have access to the food they get while at school, especially in areas that struggle with food insecurities like Athens.
“We literally have laws around attendance and the fact that you have to come to school, but then if you come to school, how can there not be a guarantee for food?” Francis said.
