Photo by Bob Nichols

Photo by Bob Nichols

The number of California students participating in the federal free or reduced-price school meal program increased by 10 percent, or a little more than 300,000 students, in merely iii years at least in part as a fallout from the Great Recession.

"With the economic turn down and so many families struggling to make ends meet, they are turning to school meals equally another resource to brand sure their kids go the nutrition they need," said Tia Shimada, a diet policy advocate for California Nutrient Policy Advocates.

She said the increased number of students in school lunch programs is mirrored by the growing participation in food banks and other emergency nutrient services.

According to the latest figures from the California Department of Education, almost 3.5 million students enrolled in the plan in the last school year, or almost 57 percent of all children enrolled in California's M-12 schools.

That'southward upwards from well-nigh iii.one million children in the 2007-08 schoolhouse yr, or just over 50%, when the recession officially started.

Education Department officials wait the numbers to grow even higher when figures for the current 2011-12 school twelvemonth are released this spring.

California students now account for about 1 in 6 of all children participating in the school dejeuner program nationally.

This trend is a national one, according to an analysis by the New York Times of data from the Department of Agriculture, which administers the meals program. The Times found that the number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose nationally from xviii million in 2006–07 to 21 million in the concluding schoolhouse yr—an increase of 17%.

Food advocates acknowledge that some of the growth is because school districts have more than aggressively sought to enroll eligible children, or are now required to automatically enroll students whose families are in the CalFresh program, formerly known as Food Stamps, and in CalWORKS, the state'southward welfare program.

In 2006–07, the automated enrollment program, known as "directly certification," was just beginning to be phased in effectually the state. Until then, parents had to make full out forms to enroll their children and hand them in at their school.

"The good news is that districts are participating in this program," said Kevin Conway, a projection managing director of Mathematica Policy Research, who co-authored a study to Congress about the direct certification program. "The bad news is that caseloads are expanding."

"The increase is very startling," he added, referring to the numbers of children that are automatically certified for the schoolhouse meal programme. "The principal driver obviously is the economic system."

Amy Carson, plan analyst for the school nutrition programs at the California Department of Pedagogy, said the number of students who qualify for free or reduced-toll schoolhouse meals because their families are in CalFresh continues to grow. "I meet a huge growth this school year," she said.

According to federal regulations, if schools have a high proportion of low-income children (75 percent or more than, according to the Food Inquiry and Action Center), they can apply to exist relieved of a range of administrative burdens and thus reduce costs. Merely they must serve school luncheon meals to all the children in a school (the so-called "Provision two of "Special Assistance Alternatives') fifty-fifty though they are just reimbursed for the cost of meals for low-income students, not all students.

Co-ordinate to the Mathematica report, an estimated 350,000 California students are in Provision 2 schools, and all are now enrolled in the school lunch program. In fourteen smaller schoolhouse districts, with a total enrollment of 17,000 students, all the children are participating in the school luncheon program, co-ordinate to the California Section of Education.

However schools are managing to boost participation, said the California Food Policy Advocate's Shimada, she welcomes their efforts.

"It's great they are doing it," she said. "These are federally-funded benefits that kids are eligible for."

Notation: This mail service includes additional information on Provision 2 of the  National School Lunch Plan compared with the original version.

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