Some families will have to apply for free lunches next school year
Jul. 1—Parents at some Santa Fe public schools seeking free meals for their students during the upcoming school year will need to fill out paperwork to be eligible, the district announced.
The decision comes after the passage of a new federal bill known as the Keep Kids Fed Act, which will increase reimbursements to meal providers like schools and child care centers, and extend access to free summer meals for kids. But school meals no longer will be free for all public school children, as they were during the pandemic.
Santa Fe Public Schools announced its policy for free and reduced-price meals last week. Students who attend Acequia Madre, Atalaya, Carlos Gilbert, Piñon and Wood Gormley elementary schools; Amy Biehl and El Dorado community schools; Mandela International Magnet School and Santa Fe High School will have to complete an an application to determine their eligibility.
Due to a provision for schools with high rates of low-income students, all students in the district's 19 other schools are automatically eligible for free meals.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture waived eligibility requirements for free school meals during the pandemic and, as a result, participation in school meal programs had risen significantly.
In March, Santa Fe Public Schools student nutrition director Elizabeth Cull told The New Mexican the district had distributed roughly 2,600 breakfasts and 5,650 lunches daily during the 2021-22 school year. Cull said then she guessed those numbers will go down once families are required to fill out paperwork, adding the rate of student lunch debt likely will rise.
For families sending kids to schools where paperwork is required, there are income limits on free and reduced-price meals. A family of four, for instance, must make $51,338 or less annually, or about $988 a week to become eligible for reduced-price meals — though in 2020, New Mexico lawmakers passed a bill requiring the state to cover reduced-price co-pay costs for students.
Just one eligibility application is required per household, no matter the number of children. If a family fills out an application for free or reduced-price lunch and is eligible, they still must pay any outstanding student lunch debt, according to a news release from the district.
Families are also able to apply throughout the year, if the size of their families grow or they experience income loss.
For the coming school year, all breakfasts for district students will be $1.20. Lunch for elementary and middle schoolers at most schools is $2.30, while lunch at Mandela International Magnet School is $2.60 and Santa Fe High is $2.75.
The changes come as The Food Depot recently released a report that said at least 5,000 children in Santa Fe County are experiencing hunger at times. The report called on city officials to increase minimum wage to ease the problem.
Jill Dixon, deputy director of The Food Depot, said officials at her organization decided to forgo getting federal support for their summer meal program, as they were uncertain whether lawmakers would extend stipulations that have allowed all kids to access the free meals and consume them off-site.
Last week, President Joe Biden signed a bill that will allow for the extension of those measures for summer meal programs. But Dixon said the decision came too late for The Food Depot.
Instead, the organization went without federal funding and has seen a sharp increase in participants — upward of 50 per day at each of the summer meal sites, which allow off-site consumption. Dixon said both the off-site allowance and rising food prices related to inflation could be driving more families to use the summer food program.
"There are fewer barriers," she said of this year's summer meal program. "We very infrequently have anything left over, and previously we had tons of food left over. We had some sites that were only serving five people."
Dixon expressed concern students attending schools with fewer low-income children who have to complete paperwork to access free meals may be hesitant to do so because of a stigma — or some parents may not be aware of the need to do so after two school years without such red tape.
"What we know, universally, is that hunger exists in every single neighborhood and community," she said. "I would maybe make the argument that particularly in schools that have a really wide range of socioeconomic circumstances, it can be more stigmatizing in those environments to admit your family is struggling."
