By Marcia Barnes
Staff Writer
Clay County Schools’ students will benefit from a new program which offers a free breakfast and free lunch when classes begin on Monday, Aug. 26.
School Nutrition Director Jenny Bethel said the district has adopted a food and nutrition service known as Community Eligibility Provision. The program was authorized by the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 and became public law December 13, 2010.
CEP is a meal service option that allows schools located in high poverty areas to offer these meals at no cost to all enrolled students if the school operates the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.
“Over the years some schools adopted the program, mostly inner-city schools with high poverty levels. In the 2014/2015 school year this became an option for schools nationwide as poverty levels had gone up,” Bethel said.
For Clay County Schools to be eligible for the program there must be a percentage of students who automatically qualify for free meals based on their household’s participation in specific means-tested programs. Those programs include Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Other categories include students who are homeless, migrant, runaway, foster or those who receive Medicaid.
Once elected schools can operate using CEP for a four year cycle and rather than collecting school meal applications for individual student eligibility determinations, schools adopting the program are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students who automatically quality for free meals.
The identified student percentage is multiplied by a factor of 1.6 to determine the total percentage of meals reimbursed at the federal free rate; the remaining meals, up to 100 percent, are reimbursed at the federal paid rate.
One of the many benefits of this program is that it increases access to school meals at no cost to students, as well as improves the learning environment and eliminates social stigma. This will also benefit the School Nutrition Program at Clay County Schools by increasing student participation, eliminating paperwork for households and the fact that there will be no meal charge for students.
Participation in CEP is a local decision, including financial viability and one that was approved by the Clay County Schools Board of Education on May 20. CEP data must be reported to the Department of Public Instruction each year on April 1. Bethel has to insure that all breakfast and lunch patterns are met per federal guidelines and must check that all menus meet the nutritional guidelines from pre-K through high school.
“For instance, at lunch we must offer five components that consist of milk, meat or a meat alternative, grains, fruits and vegetables. Eighty percent of the grains offered are whole grains and during a one-week period there must be a variety of sub-groups offered such as dark green vegetables, red-orange vegetables, legumes and a starchy vegetable,” Bethel said.
“Clay County Schools participate in the N.C. Farm to School Program. Most of our fruits and vegetables come from farms in western N.C. For a reimbursable meal a student must select three out of the five components and of those three, one has to be a fruit or vegetable. Over the past few years we have seen an increase in kids taking more fruits and vegetables with very little going into the trash. For breakfast we must offer milk, a meat or meat alternative like yogurt, eggs or cheese, a vegetable which is optional and a fruit and grain which is required,” Bethel said.
There is a different menu for pre-K through second grade. Bethel said that there is one menu for elementary/middle school students and one menu for high school students which provides much of the same menu items, only different serving sizes.
“At the middle and high school levels we have a fresh salad bar each day. Students can make their own salad from a selection of fruits, vegetables, diced ham, chicken, shredded cheese and fresh romaine lettuce.”
Many states are adopting a universal free meal. Bethel hopes one day that will be the case for the students of North Carolina.
“A child cannot learn if they’re hungry,” Bethel said. The new school year will now offer free lunches and breakfasts to all students with assistance from the CEP.