SPRINGVILLE, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Springville-Griffith Institute Central School District announced it will provide free meals to all students beginning January 17.
The district said the Board unanimously passed a resolution to provide free breakfast and lunch for all students through June 2023.
According to the district, it collected data during the first four months of the school year which found that fewer students were buying breakfast and lunch and a number of families didn’t qualify for free meals based on Federal standards.
"We saw a substantial drop in the number of students getting breakfast (down by 33%) and lunch (down by 25%). This makes sense given that the threshold to qualify for free meals, $36,075 for a family of four, is substantially lower than the livable wage for that same family of four, $77,022," a release says.
The district said the federal government recently changed the law governing school lunch programs and now allows schools to use excess funds to subsidize lunches.
7 News' Pheben Kassahun spoke with experts from FeedMore Western New York to find out why the free meals could make all the difference for local families.
"Healthy school meals are just as important to academic success, as textbooks and teachers," FeedMore WNY communications manager, Catherine Shick told Pheben Kassahun over Zoom Monday.
Reinstating the school lunch program is not new.
During the pandemic, many schools across the nation offered breakfast and lunch to students at no charge.
However, in June 2022, the assistance program expired, thus returned to charging students for meals at school who did not qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
"Many of our families are facing a hunger cliff. They're struggling with food insecurity at the same time that the cost of living continues to rise," Shick added.
Shick explained, in its four-county service area (Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties) collectively experienced an 11% increase in recent months, in the number of people visiting their food pantries for food assistance.
She said this program could not have been reinstated at a better time.
"We know that when students have consistent access to nutrition and they're able to have a balanced healthy diet, they do perform better, their memory improves, their attendance improves. We see time and time again that critical role that proper nutrition plays on child development," Shick said.
According to FeedMore WNY, one in five children in the region face food insecurity.
Children and teens experiencing hunger have lower math scores and poorer grades and are more likely to be hyperactive, absent, and tardy, in addition to having behavioral and attention problems more often than other children.
"We look at this measure as a means to provide relief to families for the remainder of this school year. However, if the Federal and/or State governments do not act to reinstate funding for meals for all students, we will need to revisit the need to charge for lunches in the 2023-2024 school year. In the meantime, we will continue to lobby for change that will support free or greatly reduced-price meals for all," a release says.
