Two-thirds of St. Paul schools to offer free lunch for all students
St. Paul Public Schools will serve free lunch to all students at 39 of their 59 schools this year.
The district is expanding its participation in a federal program that offers free lunches for schools with high rates of poverty.
"It's going to make it easier for St. Paul to be financially viable," said Jean Ronnei, chief operations officer for the district. "Because if all students get access to a meal at no cost, participation goes up and satisfaction goes up and stigma around the program also decreases."
Eight schools in the district participated in the program last school year. St. Paul already serves free breakfast at all schools.
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Ronnei said by lifting the stigma of free lunch, the program should make more students feel comfortable getting lunch at school.
The National School Lunch Program's community eligibility provision allows for schools and districts with high poverty rates to offer meals to students based on the percentage of students who qualify for other programs, such as SNAP.
According to data from the district, 72 percent of students are eligible for free and reduced lunch in the district.
At the same time, the district is doing away with a program that provided students a fruit or vegetable snack and a nutrition lesson during the day.
Ronnei said the program, which started in 2009, became too expensive.
"In order to make sure we didn't tap into the general fund and keep away from taking money from the classroom, we had to take a look at programs that were losing money, and this was one of those programs," she said.
Students return to elementary and secondary schools on Sept. 8. Kindergarten begins on Sept. 10.