Thursday, December 5, 2024
The Granbury Independent School District is taking significant steps to improve its free and reduced meal program — ensuring that every student has access to nutritious food.
As required by the Texas Department of Agriculture, the district has implemented a charge policy this year that allows students to accumulate up to $20 in meal debt. According to squaremeals.com, charge policies outline how school nutrition programs can provide meals to students when payment can't be collected at the time of service.
Once the $20 charge limit is reached, students are provided with an alternate meal — or a “café combo meal,” — which will allow students to enjoy meals without having to worry about an unpaid balance.
While the previous alternate meals consisted of a cheese sandwich, fruit and milk, Director of Child Nutrition Amy Whiteley explained that the district didn’t believe that was enough to meet the nutritional needs of students.
“We wanted more for our kids, so we decided to make it a reimbursable meal,” she said. “Now, they can get an entree, a fruit, a vegetable, a grain and milk.”
With the café combo meal offering significantly more substantial food options than before, Whiteley noted that the program has seen strong participation — even with students who are not in the free and reduced lunch program.
“Because it’s a reimbursable meal, any student can pick it up,” Whiteley said. “It doesn’t have to just be the student who has met their charge limit, so that really helps kind of eliminate that stigma, especially with students who know they’re (on the) free and reduced (meal program).”
An added bonus to the program, Whiteley said, is that while a student may accumulate a negative balance during the school year, that debt is wiped clean at the end of every year.
“Our program cannot carry a negative balance or a negative debt,” she explained. “The funding from the district actually pays that.”
Whiteley noted that community donations have also been instrumental in supporting unpaid meal accounts.
"We've had lots of people actually call just in the last couple of weeks about wanting to donate to kids’ meal accounts that are in debt,” she said. “It's amazing that the community wants to provide for the kiddos — just like we do."
GISD Board President Barbara Townsend also pointed out that with students’ lunch debt getting wiped clean, parents don’t have to worry about the amount accumulating the next year.
"It's not hurting the kids at all. It doesn't change anything,” Townsend said. “There were stories out there that we make the kids work it off by working in the front office, and that's all wrong. We don't do that ... There's no obvious stigma for the families or the students. I mean, we just want to make sure they're fed.”
Currently, GISD is serving about 50% of its student population through the free and reduced meal program, which prioritizes a diverse selection of foods — including an emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables.
While the program has seen increased participation overall, many parents and community members still have concerns about the district opting out of last year’s meal program.
In May 2023, GISD approved the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision program for the following academic year, which provided free breakfast and lunch to all students in the district.
However, due to a district revenue loss of $326,065, GISD decided to opt out of the program for the 2024-25 school year.
"Unfortunately, at the end of the year, we ended up losing quite a bit of money from it, and because we can't maintain that loss, we decided it was best to move back to our regular program of having households fill out their free and reduced meal applications," Whiteley explained.
Townsend explained that the district could have maintained last year’s program if more families had filled out the free and reduced lunch application. However, since students were already receiving meals for free under the CEP program, many families didn’t see the need to fill out one.
"We lost funding because the people saw no reason to fill the form out, and we had no way of documenting the number of people that were at that economic level, so that's what ended up happening,” Townsend said. “We could not force anybody to fill out the form, so that's where that problem came from.”
She added that many complaints online were also based on the belief that the program would remain in place for four years, as the program operates on a four-year qualification cycle. Townsend said while there was the possibility that the program could continue, it also depended on the district being able to demonstrate sufficient participation numbers. Without the documentation from the free and reduced applications though, Townsend noted the district had “no way to show the numbers.”
Although the district may not have access to the CEP program now, school officials still do what they can to provide free nutritious meals for students — not only during the school year but throughout the summer as well.
Since 50% of GISD’s students participate in the free and reduced meal program, the district is required to host a summer feeding program for at least 30 days every summer. The summer feeding program ensures that students receive healthy food options, while also helping to address food insecurity and support families in the community when school is out of session.
In addition to the required 30 days for the summer feeding program, the district also extends the program every year to meet the ongoing needs of the community, as many families rely on this support during the break.
Whiteley states that the district doesn’t provide weekend meals, as district regulations stipulate that the program must operate only during regular school calendar days — but there are other community organizations that step in to help.
Nonprofit organization Neighbors Feeding Neighbors, which provides food security for Hood County residents in need, supplies backpacks filled with food for students to take home over the weekend.
“Kids can't learn unless they're fed,” Townsend said. “Hungry kids don't learn — so we do everything we can, and it hurts my heart to see stories that make it sound like we, as a district, would do something against our kids.”
Townsend also praised Whiteley for her efforts in sourcing fresh vegetables and fruits from local farmers, adding that she’s brought the meal program a “step above where it was before.”
“We’re all for feeding kids,” Whiteley added. “And feeding nutritious meals.”
