Debt increasing for Iowa school lunch programs

CEDAR RAPIDS — Some families in the College Community School District -- and other Iowa districts -- are struggling to buy school breakfast and lunch for their kids.

And the College Community district is carrying a much higher debt for the reduced-price meal program where lower-income parents can’t pay the balance owed.

Rep. Sami Scheetz, D-Cedar Rapids, recently introduced House File 575, which proposed allocating $1.1 million in state funds to cover the money owed for reduced-price meals, though the bill’s prospects appear dim in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The College Community School District in southwest Cedar Rapids has an unpaid meal debt of around $14,000 — much higher than the $1,000 or less in previous years, said Ginny Scott, the district’s director of nutritional services.

The proposed state funding “would be a great start,” Scott said. “A lot of our families qualify for reduced-price (meals). Even though prices are 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch, sometimes they’re still not able to afford it.”

Inflation, she said, has had “a big impact on families’ ability to make ends meet. They’re just making choices. You don’t want your heat or your lights to be turned off. Your students can eat a meal at school, and you might not have to pay it right away.

“We’ve seen a rise this year in parents not allowing (their children) to charge meals but also not sending meals, knowing that those kids are going hungry.”

Since 2018, Iowa has required schools to feed all students who want a school breakfast and lunch. If a household does not or cannot pay for the meals, the school nutrition program carries the debt.

Since school nutrition programs are self-funded, “it turns our department into a collection agency,” Scott said. “The only way for that debt to be paid off is if the parents pay it or we can apply donations to those balances. That’s a slippery slope because donations aren’t always there, and the meal debt continues to grow.”

School meals

During the 2021-22 school year in Iowa, 40 percent of all students qualified for free and reduced-price school meals through the National School Lunch Program.

Free school meals are provided children in households with incomes below 130 percent of the federal poverty level or those receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, formerly known as food stamps, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Those with family incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty line qualify for reduced-price meals. In the College Community district, about 3.32 percent of students — or 204 kids — qualify for reduced-price meals, Scott said.

End of free federal meals

During the pandemic, schools provided free meals to students for two years, from March 2020 through June 2022. Since the program ended, schools are seeing fewer students eat breakfast and lunch at school.

Before the pandemic, Iowa had one of the lowest rates of participation in school breakfast programs in the nation.

Meg Brink, food program consultant with the Cedar Rapids-based Grant Wood Area Education Agency, said when meals were free, the number of Iowa students participating in school breakfast programs increased by 45 percent and lunch participation increased 7 percent.

“That’s more kids who were able to eat with us who were fueled up and ready to learn,” Brink said.

In the College Community district, participation in the school meal program increased by approximately 50 percent when meals were free, Scott said.

Just a few extra dollars of income a year can mean a family no longer qualifies for reduced-price lunch. “There are families that are just $6 over from qualifying for a reduced-price meal,” Brink said.

The numbers

Since free meals ended, breakfast participation in the College Community schools has dropped from 1,000 students a day to 700. About 1,000 fewer students are participating in school lunches, Scott said.

In Cedar Rapids schools, almost 50 percent of students qualify for free lunch and up to 5 percent qualify for reduced-price lunches, said Jennifer Hook, Cedar Rapids schools nutrition services director.

Of the district’s 32 schools, 24 of them qualify for the Federal Community Eligibility Provision Program, which allows them to offer free breakfast and lunch to every student.

In Iowa City schools, 5,700 students qualify for free lunch and 545 qualify for reduced-price lunch, said Alison Demory, nutrition services director for the Iowa City Community School District.

“We would welcome any assistance,” Demory said. “Our goal is to feed kids, not to be bill collectors. When you take away barriers to meals, the ultimate outcome is nourishing minds.”

Legislative prospects

Scheetz said he hopes his school meal funding bill will be revived this legislative session after not making it through the first legislative “funnel” deadline last week.

In his proposed bill, all K-12 Iowa schools that participate in a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture school meal program, including private and charter schools, would be eligible for the funding.

But Rep. Gary Mohr, R-Bettendorf, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said he is not planning on resurrecting the bill. It would be unfair, he said, to do that for one bill and not for the other bills that failed to gain traction in the House.

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