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How the USDA makes free school meals possible for New Hanover County students

An older white woman in a green shirt that says "New Hanover County Schools Child Nutrition" preparing lunch trays. She's using a pair of metal tongs to scoop up corn dog nuggets.
Nikolai Mather
/
WHQR
Alderman Elementary is one of thirty schools in New Hanover County School District that provides free breakfasts and lunches for all its students.

This year, 30 New Hanover County schools qualified for the Community Eligibility Provision, which makes meals free for all students regardless of income. School board member David Perry has called the program unnecessary. But school staff in New Hanover County say it's been a boon for students.

Kids are not the biggest fans of squash. Or sweet potatoes. Or broccoli. Marie Hartl, who is the cafeteria manager at Alderman Elementary, had to get creative in order to help her kids appreciate vegetables. So she bought the toy versions of them and put them on the lunch line.

"They love it," she said. "They look at it and they say, 'Oh, look at tomato!'"

Hartl has been the cafeteria manager for thirteen years. In that time, she's fed hundreds of New Hanover County students. But for the past ten years, she hasn't accepted a dime of lunch money. That's because, at Alderman, every meal is free.

This year, New Hanover County Schools expanded the Community Eligibility Provision. The CEP program allows high-poverty schools to provide free meals to every student using federal money. The program isn't new, but its expansion comes at a time when free meals for students have become a political hot topic. Republican school board candidate David Perry, who was recently elected, has repeatedly criticized the program, calling it "socialist."

But staff at New Hanover County Schools say CEP is anything but political.

What is CEP?

Before CEP, students in need of free or reduced meals had to complete applications for aid and submit to their school or school district. The federal government would then reimburse schools for meals based on the number of students registered.

CEP, which the USDA began offering to schools in 2014, streamlined the process. Now, the federal government determines reimbursement with a formula based on the percentage of students who automatically qualify for free meals. Those students usually qualify based on aid programs their families already participate in — like SNAP, TANF, or, in North Carolina, Medicaid. If those students exceed 25 percent of total enrollment (and if the school participates in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program), then the school gets CEP funding.

Andrew Harrell from the Carolina Hunger Initiative told WHQR that on the government side, the process can get a little complicated. But for schools and students, it's streamlined.

"For families, it's very simple: if your kid goes to a CEP school, they get school breakfast and school lunch at no cost to you," he said. "This is great because it helps expand access to healthy school meals for families, and it's great for schools, because it can help reduce the amount of paperwork and background work that's required to get those meals to kids."

Districts can opt for the traditional free school lunch program if they wish. But for many schools, it's cheaper and more practical to participate in CEP.

Criticism

Earlier this year, the New Hanover County school board approved a measure bringing CEP funding in for the 2024-2025 academic period. At the time, then-superintendent Dr. Charles Foust praised the program, saying it would feed students at no cost to the district. But David Perry — who at the time was still running for school board — disagreed.

"The fact is, we need to make financial priorities," he said during a board meeting on April 9th, 2024. "We are a school system. We are not a welfare agency."

In his remarks, Perry said that CEP would only reimburse the ongoing costs of feeding people eligible for SNAP and TANF — leaving a funding gap that NHCS would have to cover.

"I fear that we are going to be on the hook for millions of dollars in the coming years because of this program," he said.

Stanley said CEP doesn't work like that, noting that it's earned based on meals served, rather than kids who qualify.

"We earn our reimbursement based on the number of meals that we serve. So if a school has 300 children in it, and we serve 150, we're only being reimbursed for those 150 meals," she said. "So if a child does not participate and we don't provide that meal – we're not getting funded."

But it is true that there is a funding gap. Some districts qualify for 100% CEP funding. Neighboring districts Brunswick County Schools, Columbus County Schools, and Whiteville City Schools do, meaning every student in those districts can eat for free.

It's a little different for NHCS. Out of 43 schools, 30 qualify for CEP. And even then, the district doesn't quite get full federal funding. NHCS nutrition director Amy Stanley told WHQR that CEP currently covers all but 7% of the costs associated with free meals in the district.

But Stanley told WHQR that it's a gap that the nutrition program can sustain.

"Child nutrition is very different from other parts of the school district. We are self-supporting, so we have to make sure that we can pay all of our salaries, we can buy all the food that is needed, all of the supplies, all of the equipment needs," she said.

Stanley also pointed out the benefits of the program. Less paperwork means less work for school staff and parents. Ending the traditional free and reduced lunch program means less stigma for kids who'd previously be singled out by the program. And, according to Stanley, there's a growing body of research showing how free meals improve grades, behavioral issues, and overall student health.

"I feel that school meals are an essential school supply for every child. So my goal would be for every school, but it is all going to depend on the budgeting," she said. "Right now, the 30 schools is where we need to be budget-wise."

The future of CEP

There's another reason why Stanley is hesitant to expand CEP.

"One thing that I don't want to do: I don't want to put a school in the CEP program for a year and then have to remove them because, you know, it's not sustainable," she said. "I don't think that's fair to the families."

Perry has not responded to multiple requests for comment from WHQR. But his election to New Hanover County's school board means slashing CEP is not out of the question.

It's unclear whether reverting some (or all) schools to the traditional free and reduced lunch program would save the district money. Having experienced both CEP and free and reduced, Hartl told WHQR she definitely preferred the former.

"Some of the parents [could not] afford to pay the debts from their lunch. So it was difficult for us, sometimes collecting the debts. And some kids [would still ask], 'can I get some lunch?'" she said. "We don't have to collect bills now, because it's free."

An older Thai woman stands behind a a computer and a tray of condiments in the lunch line of a small school kitchen. She's rapidly scanning ID cards. She looks focused.
Nikolai Mather/WHQR Public Radio
Marie Hartl, who serves as cafeteria manager at Alderman Elementary, says funding from the Community Eligibility Provision means none of her kids go hungry.

Stanley said she remains hopeful that every school in New Hanover County would offer free lunch. But, she said, a lot has to change before that's possible.

"We really need support from local, state and federal legislation to make this accessible to all children, and we really need that support at the state level, because as other states are going completely free, you're going to see less and less support from the federal government to pick it up," she said.

For now, she sees CEP as a win for New Hanover County.

"If we're going to give them transportation and we're going to give them a building and we're going to give them a book and we're going to give them a laptop… let's give them food," she said.

Rachel Keith contributed to this report.

Nikolai Mather is a Report for America corps member from Pittsboro, North Carolina. He covers rural communities in Pender County, Brunswick County and Columbus County. He graduated from UNC Charlotte with degrees in genocide studies and political science. Prior to his work with WHQR, he covered religion in Athens, Georgia and local politics in Charlotte, North Carolina. In his spare time, he likes working on cars and playing the harmonica. You can reach him at nmather@whqr.org.