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No More Universal Feeding in Philadelphia Schools
The USDA is planning to end the universal feeding program that allows students in Philadelphia schools to receive free meals without filing applications. The initiative was set up as a pilot program 17 years ago in an attempt to feed more poor students, many of whom don’t return the necessary forms and miss out on their free school meal. It was working — 80 percent of students ate lunch at schools that offered universal feeding, compared to 45 percent in other Pennsylvania schools. But USDA officials told the Philadelphia Inquirer last week that they can no longer justify giving Philadelphia special treatment.
Anti-hunger advocates say thousands of Philadelphia children will go without lunch if the program ends. And without the high participation rates and the plentiful federal reimbursements they bring in, the quality of the food will probably suffer as well. On top of that, the school district will have to shell out $800,000 each year to process applications. Philadelphia currently collects data on student income levels once every few years, and spends about $500,000 on each of those district-wide surveys. That’s a much more cost-effective way to keep track of student eligibility.
All students in Philadelphia schools receive free meals, but the USDA bases its reimbursements on the number of low-income students in the district. That means the USDA isn’t buying meals for students who are able to pay themselves. So why kill the program? Is the USDA trying to cut costs? Every application not filed is one fewer reimbursement out of the department’s budget…
Philadelphia does not deserve special treatment. But no school should have to spend almost $1 million processing forms when current data shows that most students are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price meals (2006 data shows that 79.6 percent of Philly students qualify). Let’s put those dollars to better use elsewhere.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
good grief the comments on the original philly inquirer article are awful. i love when people are like, hey kids, i think your parents are irresponsible so suck it up and hopefully build character along the way. wtf. any updates on activism on this issue?