Free Meal Program Ending at Three County Schools

LG and Schulenburg Have Been Able to Continue Lunches For All at No Cost

State and federal pandemic food programs provided free lunches at nearly all schools in America last year. Those programs are coming to an end, and some schools will resume charging students for lunch. That won’t be the case is La Grange, however.

La Grange I.S.D. offered free lunches to all students before the pandemic through a federal program called the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). Diana Fitzpatrick, the district’s finance director, told the school board at a meeting last Monday that the school would continue serving free lunches through the CEP program.

It remains to be seen whether the change will lead to any financial implications to the district.

“Reimbursement rates were amazing,” Fitzpatrick said. “We were making a lot of money from the child nutrition program this last year. Unfortunately, they have not let us know what our rates are going to be yet.

Schulenburg I.S.D. will continue to offer free lunches for all students. Like La Grange, Schulenburg I.S.D. utilized the Community Eligibility Provision prior to the pandemic.

“We were part of CEP prior to COVID, so we will continue with free lunches for all students,” said Schulenburg Superintendent Duane Limbaugh.

As in La Grange, Limbaugh said the reimbursement rate his school received from the federal government went up during COVID. The rate could change now that the COVID programs are coming to an end, he said.

“Even if they lower the rate, with the staffing levels we have right now, we will be able to continue it,” Limbaugh said.

Fayetteville I.S.D., Flatonia I.S.D. and Round Top-Carmine I.S.D. will resume charging students for lunch.

Fayetteville Superintendent Dr. Jeff Harvey said his school did not qualify for the CEP program prior to COVID. Lower income families can apply for free or reduced price lunches, just as they could prior to the pandemic.

“They didn’t have to fill out the applications for free or reduced price lunch last year because everybody got free lunches,” Harvey said. “So our numbers only showed 20 percent on free or reduced price last year. We were at 40 percent the year before, so it’ll be interesting to see if that number comes back up this year.”

The same situation applies at Flatonia and Round Top-Carmine I.S.D. Neither school was part of the CEP program prior to last year.

Students in those schools can apply for free or reduced price lunches based on family income level.