Brian Hagberg
RUSSELL, Pa. – For the last two academic years, the Warren County School District has been providing free breakfasts and lunches to all students in the district thanks to a USDA waiver program.
By all accounts, that waiver program will not be renewed for the 2022-23 academic year. During Monday’s Finance Committee meeting, the district appeared willing to pay a little more to continue offering free meals to all district students.
“There were various waivers that they (USDA) provided to school districts, one of those being free breakfast and lunch meals for all students,” Melissa Kingen, The Nutrition Group Regional Manager, told the board. “For right now, we do not have any of those waivers that we plan on coming back into play next year. So with that, we had to now look at the entire program.”
Kingen presented five options the district could choose from regarding the free and reduced-price meal options.
Pre-COVID, there were several schools across the district that qualified for the Community Eligibility Program – where all students were eligible to receive free meals – including Sheffield schools, Youngsville schools, and Warren Area Elementary Center.
“Those students were receiving free meals in those schools prior even to COVID,” Kingen said. “So we had to look at going back to that program where those schools were set up and we charge students for breakfast and lunch at the remaining schools. So we want to look at different options.”
The five options presented were:
- Go back to the pre-COVID plan of providing free meals at Sheffield schools, Youngsville schools, and WAEC, and charging at all other district schools. Students at the remaining schools would be able to apply for free or reduced-price lunches. The estimated cost to the district would be $307,724.
- The district could add Beaty to the group of schools providing free meals, charging at all remaining district schools, and offering students in remaining schools the ability to apply for free or reduced-price meals. The estimated cost for this option would be $286,357.
- Add Beaty and Eisenhower Elementary School to the completely free meal plan, charge at all remaining schools. The estimated cost for this plan would be $298,411.
- Add Beaty and Warren Area High School to the free meal plan, charge at all remaining schools. The estimated cost for this option would be $317,125.
- Continue offering free meals district-wide. No applications for free or reduced meals would be necessary. The estimated cost for this plan would be $365,630.
Kingen highlighted an added benefit to the district-wide free meal plan that could help reduce that cost by up to $30,000.
“Probably one of the biggest things that has a huge impact here is you have to consider unpaid meal debt because the USDA will not allow school districts to deny a student a meal,” Kingen said. “If a student does not have money in their account, we cannot deny them breakfast or lunch which means that this unpaid meal debt will continue to rise. In years before, when we provided free meals to students, that number is very high, $25,000 to $30,000 or higher in meal debt.”
Kingen also provided data that showed participation in school meal programs rose by as much as 30 percent from March 2019 to March 2022. Twenty-eight percent of students received breakfast in March 2019, which rose to 49 percent in March 2022. The increase in student lunches served was even higher, from 35 percent in 2019 to 65 percent in 2022.
Little discussion was had among committee members, or the board at-large about the issue, and committee chair Arthur Stewart asked that the item be moved to the next full board meeting with a recommendation for district-wide free meals.
(Editor’s note: Stewart had to recap the committee discussion of this item as electrical issues at Central Office cut the feed of the in-person board members from the public Zoom meeting.)
Facilities Planning
Board President Paul Mangione announced that the board had an executive session to interview a firm about facilitating the master facility planning process.
The board is still in the process of selecting a firm. If and when a firm is chosen, it will lead the process of creating a master facilities plan.
