Following the repeal of universal free school lunches during the COVID-19 pandemic, more students and schools in Whatcom County are receiving free lunches than before the pandemic.
In Bellingham Public Schools, just two schools — Alderwood and Cordata — received free lunches for all in 2019, and now 13 schools feed their students for free. Nooksack Valley School District and Ferndale School District now also provide free lunches to all students.
“Offering free meals to all of our students has helped by removing a possible stigma of receiving free [and] reduced meals,” Nooksack Superintendent Matt Galley said in an email. “We’ve seen a large percentage increase in the number of meals we serve across the district. It benefits all families to be able to rely on schools for two meals a day.”
The expansion of free meals is a result of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which provides free breakfasts and lunches to all students in schools and districts in low-income areas.
Nine out of 10 Ferndale schools qualified for free meals under CEP. The school district subsidized the remaining cost of meals at Ferndale High School, said Holly Graham, Ferndale’s managing director of Accounting and Child Nutrition.
Last February, the Washington legislature passed House Bill 1878, requiring all school districts with approximately 40% eligibility of students who qualify for free lunches to enroll in the CEP. The bill also required districts to group schools in applications “for purposes of maximizing the number of public schools eligible to participate” in the program.
Mount Baker School District and the Lummi Nation School already qualified for free universal meals through CEP, according to the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).
Students at schools not enrolled in CEP often rely on the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), also run by the USDA. A student from a family of four with an income less than $51,338 receives a lunch reduced in price, and with an income less than $36,750, receives a free lunch. Students on SNAP benefits or other government supports are automatically enrolled while other families fill out paperwork to enroll children in the program.
In Whatcom County, a median of 48.5% of students in 2021 qualified for free and reduced lunches, as opposed to 45.2% in 2019.
Schools received funding revenue based on the number of students enrolled in NSLP. In July, the USDA announced an increase of $0.68 for free and reduced lunches and $0.32 for breakfasts. The USDA estimates Washington will receive more than $104 million in support for child nutrition programs this school year.
Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Rekydal plans to submit a proposal to the 2023 Legislature to fully fund all breakfasts and lunches in Washington schools beginning in the 2023–24 school year, regardless of income status.
“When students are hungry, their ability to learn and engage in school is impacted,” Reykdal said in a press release last month. “Quality nutrition is a key component of student success, and access to meals is an important part of being at school. We have to stop expecting families to foot the bill for resources and supports that are a normal part of the school day.”
School officials, however, worry the expansion of CEP and universal free lunches will impact the measured poverty rate, which is partially built by families filling out free and reduced lunch forms, Bellingham Public Schools superintendent Greg Baker said in the August board meeting. Poverty rates impact school revenues, and the data is useful in writing grants.
“If we get fewer people filling that out, it will impact our revenue in foreseen ways and unforeseen ways,” Baker said. “So our team — unless they change the rules — has to keep vigilant around supporting our families and getting those filled out.”
Federal and state authorities are aware of the impending issue and are looking at other ways of collecting the same data, said Simone Sangster, assistant superintendent of finance for Bellingham Public Schools, at the same meeting.
