When the 2014-15 school year began this week, a lot of parents are getting a break of a different kind where it matters a lot, their wallets, thanks to a new federal USDA program that is allowing many school districts across the state, including Clinton County, to offer “free” breakfast and lunch to all students in the district.

Food Service Director Georgia Rigney has been working to help Clinton County qualify for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) that qualifies the district to offer the free meals.

Rigney provided a July release from the Center on Budget Policy Priorities, which detailed the program, which began as a pilot program in some districts, including a few in Kentucky, last year. That release follows:

“The Community Eligibility Provision is a powerful new tool to ensure that low-income children in high-poverty neighborhoods have access to healthy meals at school. Established in the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, next year community eligibility will allow more than 280,000 schools in high-poverty neighborhoods to offer nutritious meals through the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs to all students at no charge. By eliminating school meal applications and fees, community eligibility streamlines meal operations, reduces administrative burdens for schools and families, and reduces stigma that children, especially teens, sometimes face if they eat school meals.

School districts can offer community eligibility district-wide or in selected schools within a district if more than 40 percent of their students are ‘Identified Students’–that is, approved for free meals without an application based on data from other programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly the Food Stamp Program, that serves low-income children.

Community eligibility has been phased in over the last three years. Approximately 4,000 schools in 600 school districts in low-income communities across 11 states offer community eligibility.

Because community eligibility is easy to adopt and simplifies program administration, districts of all kinds have successfully implemented it.

Community eligibility is making a profound difference for students and schools. In schools in Kentucky, Illinois and Michigan that participated in community eligibility for two years, lunch participation rose by 13 percent, which resulted in more than 23,000 additional children eating lunch daily, and breakfast participation increased by 25 percent, which resulted in more than 29,000 additional children eating breakfast daily.

Beginning with the 2014-15 school year, high-poverty schools and school districts in all states will be eligible to adopt community eligibility to help reduce hunger and make school meal programs more efficient.”

Rigney said that the food service office had worked to identify enough ‘identified students’, even by going across county lines searching for those who have students in Clinton County but apply for assistance in bordering counties, to meet the 40 percent threshold required to make Clinton County schools eligible.

Rigney said the now free lunch initiative here in Clinton County has been well publicized, including in the local news media, social media and on the school districts web page.

“Parents are very excited about it,” said Rigney. “I’ve had calls from parents thanking us for getting it through.”

Beyond the daily free breakfast and lunch provided students, there will also be the “supper program,” which is also free and will be offered to students who stay after school for tutoring, sports activities, and so forth.

The supper program will begin at the high school in September, according to Rigney, because that is the school with the most amount of after school activity. The program will then be added to the middle school and eventually at Albany Elementary by November of this year. All meals will be served immediately after the school day in each school cafeteria and must be consumed on site.

She also pointed out that the summer feeding program was a tremendous success and that success was boosted tremendously by the “Bus Stop Cafe” program that utilized a moving outlet.

The Bus Stop Cafe program served 2,520 meals during the summer break and those meals were included in the 8,945 total meals the local summer feeding program distributed.

Rigney also stressed that although free meal applications will no longer be required, it is pertinent that all parents fill out the HIF (Household Information Forms) they receive and return them, noting that the information contained on those forms help establish the amount of funding the school district receives from several other state and federal programs.

Even though all student meals will be free, Food Services prices for adults and “extra” meals students may want to purchase beyond the free meals, were recently approved by the Clinton County Board of Education. Those prices are as follows:

* Breakfast: Student 2nd meal (3 items) – $1.50; staff adult (3 items) – $2.00; visitor adult – $2.75.

* Lunch: Student 2nd meal-$2.50; staff adult – $3; visitor adult – $4.

*Holiday Meals — Additional charge – $1 and “To Go” additional charge-$0.25.

A-la-carte items can also be purchased at a minimal charge.