More kids get help with meals at school

St. Mary Parish students in 14 schools are now eating breakfast and lunch free as a result of the school board approving the community eligibility program.

Seven of 21 district schools did not qualify for the program.

CEP is a provision from the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 that allows schools and districts with high poverty rates to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. This is a federally funded program.

“It helps our parents at difficult economic times right now,” said St. Mary Food Services Supervisor Claire Guarisco. “Parents don’t have to worry about paying for nutritious meals for the students.”

Under the program, schools that qualify don’t have to collect free and reduced lunch applications, said Guarisco.

“Instead, all students at the schools will eat breakfast and lunch at no cost,” Guarisco said. “And we’ll also be able to get reimbursements back from the state at the free rate.”

The 14 schools qualified based on the identified student percentages.

This calculated percentage includes the number of students that are direct certified, receive provisions from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, are in foster care, homeless and migrant.

It is not based on free and reduced lunch applications.

Guarisco is excited about the program because it comes at no cost to the district. It even has potential for financial gains.

For every child that eats in the cafeteria at those schools, we will be reimbursed at the free rate for breakfast and lunch, Guarisco said. The reimbursable rate for breakfast is $2.04 and lunch $3.24.

The program is only for one year. The school district will reassess data in April of 2017 to see if the program remains beneficial.

If it doesn’t serve the best interest of the district, next year, we might have to go back to free and reduced- price lunch, Guarisco said.

Originally, 16 schools qualified for the program, but the closure of J.A. Hernandez and M.D. Shannon Elementary brought the number down to 14.

Two years ago, former Food Services Supervisor Mary Grimm-Howard researched this same program with the finance department. The district could not participate in the program.

At that time, the numbers revealed that the parish would have lost over $200,000, Guarisco said.

The following 14 of 21 schools qualified:

—B.E. Boudreaux Middle

—Centerville High School

—Franklin Junior High

—Franklin High

—LaGrange Elementary

—Hattie Watts Elementary

—J.B. Maitland Elementary

—Morgan City Junior High

—Norman Elementary

—Patterson Junior High

—Raintree Elementary

— W.P . Foster Elementary

—West St. Mary High

—Wyandotte Elementary

“I definitely hope that we can go parishwide with this program in the future because it’s good for families,” Guarisco said.

As far as the child’s nutrition program goes, Guarisco wants to continue to provide fresh fruits, vegetables, and nutritious meals for students in all school cafeterias.

With CEP, “our biggest hope is that it increases our student participation,” Guarisco said. “We need children to eat in our cafeterias. We still have expenses with the cost of food, labor, etc. …”

From a district standpoint, Guarisco hopes more students will eat in the cafeteria, but ultimately “we want students to want to eat in our cafeteria, both breakfast and lunch.”