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Evaluation of Free School Lunch Programs

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Education
Wordcount: 4867 words Published: 23rd Sep 2019

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Neighborhood Kids Going Hungry

 When I was denied food for not having money on me in 8th grade at the Calhoun Middle School cafeteria, my first school to attend in the United States, I did not know that particular experience could potentially be an issue that seems to carried on today, seventeen years later.

 My mother did not know that the food that was given on a daily basis at school was not free. After that first incident, I remember going with my mom to this building behind Billy Ryan High School, which, now is located off Elm St, in Denton, where she applied for the school reduction lunch program, and thus became worry free for my school lunch for the 2001 school year. At that age, I was not paying attention to others during lunch time. I was focusing on learning the English language and trying to fit in. When I went to Billy Ryan High School graduation class of 2005, I was no longer under free lunch but discounted. My dad had arrived from Mexico to live with us, and with both incomes, my brothers and I were placed on the reduced lunch, instead. I used to pay seventy cents for breakfast and lunch. I remember lining up in the first door of the cafeteria for my lunch. My mom had not deposited money on the account, nor was she notified of a balance. I remember this lady ask me if I had cash, because there was no money on the account. I was confused, so I said no. She held the tray back, and I did not have lunch that day. I never forgot her face, her ethnicity, everything about her, and surprisingly, she is still working at RHS. After that day, my mom always insured I had money with me at all times. I was too young to understand the concept of money, or feel bad for not eating. I grew up with a comfortable style of living in Mexico. All I had to do was to achieve A’s on all of my classes to receive what I wanted. Also, in my elementary and middle school days in Mexico, I only had a snack around 10 am, and I did not eat until I was home. Waiting to eat after 4 pm was not a huge deal or sacrifice.

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 I am a mother now, with two beautiful children, a toddler, and my now four-year-old who attends Pre-kindergarten in the Denton Independent School District. Fortunately, because my son’s primary language is Spanish, he qualified for the free-breakfast program. I never had to worry about money for his breakfast, or lunch as he only goes half days. When I decided to continue my education goals and enrolled in college again, I had to place him on a daycare program that is run by the same district and is at the same school where he attends. I was aware of the daycare providing lunch, and I was told that I did not have to pay out of pocket because of the breakfast program he was in. A few days later, I found out that I had to pay, thus submit another form to see if he would qualify for the lunch-reduce program. My heart dropped, I did not know if I was going to go postal on someone if I found out that my baby was left with no food all those days, and I was not given proper notices in a timely manner. Once I logged into the link, there was a negative balance. My son had been given the food, and all I had to do was to pay the negative balance and add some more for him for the upcoming days. Knowing this eased my conscious, and I was impressed to see a good judgment call from the responsible parties. My first experience was not the same way, but even though it was not traumatic for me then, it was now thinking my son went days without food. This recent incident with my son helped me open my horizon to question how often is this happening to children within the Denton Independent School District, which happens to be my community. Are these kids able to still receive their lunch, or not at all just as I experienced many years ago? It is hard not to think if any of these children that meet the requirements and are under these school reduced/free lunch programs are able to have access to food after school? I heard of children going hungry within my school district due to the poor judgments or protocols that take place during lunch cafeteria functions. As much as I would like to find a solution for world hunger, I have to make sure my community is taken care of first, nonetheless, taking an issue of humanity, perhaps facts. If all these rumors about kids going hungry are true, then I will expose a glimpse of truth.

 Children’s necessity to receiving food from schools is essential for their academic success. Yet, there is a situation brewing within the school district that has prevented children from receiving food who are already struggling to obtain a meal. Sometimes, families do not have the means to pay the account punctually, for various reasons such as simply forgetting, allocating money for different expenses and more. Families who do not qualify for any assistance and in most of these cases, the families are missing the qualification by a few hundred dollars on their gross annual income. When my son first enrolled in pre-k, I was asked to apply for the reduced lunch program. I submitted the application in July of 2017. I did not qualify for it because in the family size of 4, currently the annual gross income is $45,510, according to the Child Nutrition Programs Income Requirement Guidelines as shown in Exhibit A, will show the Income Requirement Guidelines for the school year of 2017-1018. My husband and I missed that by literally two hundred dollars. My issue with annual gross income is that as amazingly big it may seem, no one receives exactly that on each paycheck. Taxes are deducted, health insurances that now are obligatory thus not cheap are to be deducted from a person’s check before the net pay. A person gets 25% to 30% less of the actual annual income. People at the poverty line, living of governmental subsides such food stamps, disability, and other types of assistance programs struggle even further, as they are already needing assistance from the government, often miss it too, because some of those benefits are considered as income in the application. In reality, they are just barely surviving. I know this, as I met many of them when I worked as the Assistant Branch Manager for First Convenience Bank. I always had the goal to educate, and guide my clients by giving them tools that could help them achieve a comfortable lifestyle, even with limited resources. I saw several of them miss the qualification by a cusp. I am certain about it, as I had to help them fill out the paperwork, notarized any documentation that the school district requested in addition to the application, proof of income, and address, even more prominent in non-English speaking families. This fact leads me to taking an issue of fairness with the income to be considered for the Reduced/Free Lunch Programs. For instance, just because your grandma lives in a household receiving pension does not mean that she is helping with the bills of the house or any of the expenses pertaining to the grandchildren. There are other life circumstances that can take detrimental hits to the income or budget of a family, perhaps, death in the family, illness, medications, and health conditions out of one’s control.

The following is a list of incomes that are considered in the application to Reduce/Free Lunch Program and is expected to be reported.

“In accordance with the Department’s policy as provided in the Food and Nutrition Service publication Eligibility Manual for School Meals, “income,” as the term is used in this notice, continues to mean income before any deductions such as income taxes, Social Security taxes, insurance premiums, charitable contributions, and bonds. It includes the following: (1) Monetary compensation for services, including wages, salary, commissions or fees; (2) net income from nonfarm self-employment; (3) net income from farm Start Printed Page 17183self-employment; (4) Social Security; (5) dividends or interest on savings or bonds or income from estates or trusts; (6) net rental income; (7) public assistance or welfare payments; (8) unemployment compensation; (9) government civilian employee or military retirement, or pensions or veterans payments; (10) private pensions or annuities; (11) alimony or child support payments; (12) regular contributions from persons not living in the household; (13) net royalties; and (14) other cash income. Other cash income would include cash amounts received or withdrawn from any source including savings, investments, trust accounts and other resources that would be available to pay the price of a child’s meal.”

 The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the governing body of the National School Lunch Program, and the Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) is who administers this program at the federal level. The National Lunch School Program is to provide free or reduced lunch for public schools, non-profit private schools as well as child care facilities. This program is an assistance from the federal government. “The program was established under the Richard B Russell National School Lunch Act, Signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1946.” (National School Program) According to this program nationwide, in 2016 it had 31.8 million children participating under the reduce/free lunch program. In Denton ISD, there Executive Director Christopher Bomberger mentioned that there are 30,000 students hosted within our school district. “16,526 students full pay lunch, 1,868 under reduced lunch, and 11,837 with free lunch” (Bomberger, C).

 The USDA has given income guidelines and procedures to be followed when families are trying to apply and qualify for this Free/Reduce Lunch Program. The USDA also infers in regards to those extreme cases when children with no monetary resources are encountered in the lunch lines. The USDA suggests that the States, and each individual school district is generous and flexible about each student’s case, however, the ultimate decision and judgment is left to each school district and local governing official.

Students may qualify for these programs through low income requirements, as well as

“under Federal Assistance Programs, or based on their status as a homeless, migrant, runaway, or foster child. Children enrolled in a federally-funded Head Start Program, or a comparable State-funded pre-kindergarten program, are also categorical eligible for free meals. Children are also qualified for free or reduced-price school meals based on household income and family size” (NSLP)

based on a percentage below, and over the poverty line. The food that is given to students is provided by suppliers approved by the USDA. Each school district has a list of food suppliers. The States and School Districts that participate in this National Lunch School Program get incentivized and reimbursed for lunch meals

“Based on children’s free, reduced price or paid eligibility status. www.fns.usda.gov/scohol-meals/rates-reimbursement. School food authorities that are certified to be in compliance with the Program meal pattern receive an extra 6 cents for each lunch served.” (NSLP)

The Executive Director of the Child Nutrition Program in Denton ISD corroborated this information. Having these incentives plays a huge role in the attendance of students to school, ensuring that the guidelines to continue to get their reimbursement. The National Lunch School Program is working in providing fresh produce and foods to low income schools, right now focusing on elementary level, and head-start programs.

 Thinking about the school lunch programs that the government has in place to allow children to have access to food in schools at affordable prices, it does not make sense to hear frequent stories of children within my community going hungry. As I investigated this issue further, I found that the National Lunch School Program is supposedly a ‘great’ program to help parents to receive assistance; there is still an issue with the attainability during the qualification process and school officials making proper judgment calls while providing lunch to students.

  During my interview with the Executive Director for the Child Nutrition Program Department of Denton ISD, I asked him “Do you think there is a hunger issue within Denton School District?” Mr. Bomberger replied “I think there are hunger issues in all districts. I worked in Frisco ISD for 9 years and saw hunger in kids that have large family income. It is not always income that drives hunger many times the household does not have good nutrition education and the kids eat poorly prior to school, food is a very personal matter.”

 With a survey conducted through Facebook, in a controlled group of local mothers who have been in situations in need with their kids turned away from lunch meals at schools, I encountered struggling moms that had their children go through the embarrassment of being denied food at the cafeteria lines during lunch time. Some children did not have money with them because they were unaware they needed it, they are too young to understand the concept of money; others did not have the means for it, and for some reason did not qualify for the reduce/free lunch program, which, I am in search of those isolated cases. Full paying students would have no knowledge that a parent would forget to deposit on the student’s account for lunch purposes. Several students felt humiliated by the way food was withheld, as well as condescending comments, while others directed complaints to the principle that they were hungry and these grievances goaded the principle to order the cafeteria personnel to give these students their food. These statements were shared by a previous non-English speaking employee, who worked in Ryan High School for more than 10 years. She asked me to maintain her anonymously. Parent’s objection is that any monetary issue should be taken with the parents, regardless of the situation. Parents are responsible to meet the needs, and the students should never be humiliated for being unable to afford food under any circumstance, thus the schools should practice genuine care for the growth and academic success for each student by ensuring the fundamental nutrition while under the school’s care. “Students have also received a cold grilled cheese sandwich with a milk carton as an alternative in some schools, rather than a full meal.” (anonymous)

 Providing students with a cheese sandwich and carton of milk is better than the alternative, but unacceptable, since these students require healthier meals to make it through the day. Not to mention, that several of those students only have access to school lunch meals as their only source of food during the entire day, weekend, and long vacation breaks. The cashier at Ryan High School pointed out that “this happens less often, as sometimes some of the ladies feel pressured by the long lines. Some of the cashiers do not go and grab an alternative lunch bag for the student.” In her personal experience, it was very difficult to work as a cashier, because she did not have the heart to remove the food tray. She would pay many of these students’ lunch. She also commented that her

 “manager had instructed them at some point to give students the food regardless, whether they could or not pay for it. But not all of them did. A few of her co-workers were rude to students, and condescending making such remarks as ‘do your parents not have enough money for food?’ several of them felt ashamed, that they never returned to that line, not for the 10 years I worked there, unless I was the cashier at that line, since students knew I would give them their food anyways.”

 The Executive Director and parents had mentioned that there are table baskets where students share what they do not eat with others, and the cafeteria would fill them with the excess food. There are parents that come around the schools to ensure these baskets are filled. The cashier from RHS said “they did the table baskets for a few years, but then, we were asked to discontinue them, I have not been there in the last two years, I am not sure if they are doing that again.” (anonymous)

Another employee that works for Denton High School said “I worked at DHS cafeteria last year and part of this year we never refused a child a meal no matter how far in the negative their account got.” (Crews, P)

 I the survey with the controlled Facebook group of the Denton moms, which I asked specific questions that related to their experiences in dealing with the lunch programs provided by the government, especially the Denton ISD. Some of the mothers had embarrassing and frustrating experiences with their children unable to receive their lunch.

“I get paid once a month so if my son has unknowingly gotten the items that cost extra, his account gets into the negative. They always let him go negative and get lunch but she is very rude about it. The first time my son had his wallet and tried to pay for his lunch because he felt pressured. Then she acted like that was an inconvenience and I’m pretty sure she shorted him on the change. I just told him not to do that again and I try to put extra money on his account to allow for the addition expenses. I can’t figure out why some things cost extra and what those things are so it’s difficult to budget it, especially when I struggle to afford it in the first place, so it still goes negative every month. He still gets food but they make him feel like crap for it.” (Miller, C)

Moms to children in elementary, pre-k and a few high schools said that they no longer do that, instead, the school share food baskets, and they let the kids have the food even if the account goes in the negative. What mesmerized me was to find out that the attorney Rocky Haire, teachers, and some local business owners pay the negative school accounts. If attorneys, business men, parents are heavily vested into providing additional food to aid those who do not have access to it, paying off negative accounts, it must be the case that there is such an issue with the kids going hungry within our school district. “I would like to brag on my boss too, last year he paid off 2 campuses worth of lunch balances. He’s a local business owner here in Denton, and great man, might I add” (Solomon, R) Several of these moms are involved in the schools providing lunch backpacks for kids to take home over the weekend. Especially for those who only receive the school lunch as the only meal for the day. The community of moms are doing everything in their power to provide food for those children who need it the most.

A mother, and employee for the Child Nutrition Dept for the Denton ISD had mentioned

“I currently work with the Child Nutrition Department and we do not deny food to kids or take their trays if they have negative balance. The balance just keeps adding up in the students’ account.” (Nava, Y)

When I spoke to the Mr. Bomberger, the director to the Child Nutrition Department in Denton ISD, he alluded that they do not charge for pre-k and to elementary students, regardless of the situation. However, he also added that they do follow the charge policy accordingly to upper levels “We stopped this practice in 2017. No food is taken away from elementary students. Secondary students are a different story, and we follow our charge policy completely at those levels.” (Bomberger, C) I can attest to that. My son did get charge last year, and when I forgot to add money to his account, it would continue to get negative, and the school personnel would provide my son his lunch meal. This year, around the beginning of October, I checked his account. I found the money intact. It came handy when I checked it because at that precise moment, I was talking to one of Mr. Bomberger’s assistants. She said that this year the government approved free breakfast, and lunch to head-start programs, and elementary schools.

Mrs. Nava works at the same department, but her statements did not confirm what the front-line cashiers at the high schools had to say, as well as the answer that Mr. Bomberger had provided. In my little time observing people I interviewed, and surveyed, I found discrepancies. According to my anonymous interviewer, she said

“it was very hard to let everyone know about any changes made by the manager to procedures and protocol, some of them would not come to work, and lines were busy, it was hard to catch then up to speed. Other ladies also did not care, and even if they were instructed to give the kid the food tray, they would still deny it.” (anonymous)

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Mr. Bomberger provided me with a link to the procedures to the charge policy. My understanding was that they avoid leaving children hungry or without a meal as much as possible. The down side to this policy, the decision is solely left to the authorities of the local schools. The negative balances for providing food to those who cannot afford it, it has to be kept under control, and the deficit must be paid by the end of the school year “Account detail reports submitted to the Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services. Annually in June any negative balance must be paid by Denton ISD to the Child Nutrition fund.” (Giddings) In Exhibit B, the Charge Policy will be shared.

 I have received messages from parents who talk wonders about the table baskets, the bag packs that are available to students for the weekend, that the food is never denied and is indeed free. Most of these parents’ children are enrolled on the head start programs, and elementary schools. These schools do not have a problem feeding the kids, as it has been approved by the State to provide free breakfast, and lunch to participating schools in the National Lunch School Program to this 2018 school year. To the secondary schools and above, the stories of students going hungry by being denied a food tray happens more often than not. Another mom said: “I can honestly say, once you see the need and the actuals you will want to get involved.” (Frantz, M) Because students are still going hungry within the district, and the entire state accompanied by shaming attitudes by servers, it was necessary to have a revision on the charge policy, including the private notifications solely to the parents at least three times, serving food to students for two weeks and accumulating the negative balance. If the negative accounts could not get paid by the end of the year, the school needs to request extensions, or larger credits to the Child Nutrition Department, and look for alternatives to pay the negative accounts by the district or donations made by individuals and business for such purposes. The State of Legislature had to pass the bill 85®HB2159, the bill with the new rules, as to how lunch should be handled in the event of excessive negative balance accounts, and unable to provide payment during school lunch will be exposed in Exhibit C.

“If a school district provides regular meals to a student under subsection © (1) and is unable at the end of the school year to obtain payment the meals from the student’s parent or person standing in parental relation, the district may pay the negative balance on the student’s meal card, or account using private donations solicited by the district from individuals and entities for that purpose and maintained in a separate district account. The amount of any private donations received under this subsection is in addition to any reimbursements to which the district is entitled under the federal law.” (Giddings)

 From my personal experience, what is happening today in Denton ISD is almost the same it did over a decade ago. Even though, there are cases where children are left without lunch, the government, and the schools are working towards ensuring that students receive a meal regardless of the social-economic status. Tremendous work is to be done towards achieving this goal, but because a lot of the food distribution and decision-making has been relayed to the local schools, each person as a cashier, or managing body of the cafeteria at the school embodies different ideas, perceptions, judgments, and willingness to adapt to changes for the good sake of the students. Schools need to work harder at training their employees and keeping them in the loop with the changes made by the State, in reference to what they do on a daily basis. It is imperative to make sure all child nutrition employees understand the consequences that can be inflicted to students as being able to afford food is very sensitive, and personal. The introduction of this new bill has been long awaited. It is definitely moving in the right direction in trying to resolve, and in the prevention of the issue of children going hungry within my community. The new changes are making it to the schools, not inhibiting me from involving myself in this matter, and be part of the solution by aiding other moms reach the same goal. It brings joy to my heart, and hopefully, soon there will be no hunger issues within the schools of my community, and slowly work my way through the world hunger, as it also needs to be resolved, but first things first as St Mother Teresa said “If you want to end world hunger, begin within your house, your neighbor, and your own community.”

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Supporting Documentation:


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