HULBERT — When teacher Jessica Morrison sits down for lunch with her kindergartners, she feels confident they all should be ready to learn that afternoon — all of them.

That’s because Hulbert is one of several area schools that provides all its students with free lunches and breakfasts through a federal program for schools with high levels of poverty. Shelly Hickman with the Oklahoma Department of Education said 28 Oklahoma public schools offer free lunches to all their students. Other area schools serving free meals to all students include Woodall and Norwood Public Schools.

Provision 3 of the National School Lunch Program, administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, allows schools with high rates of poverty to choose to serve free lunches to all their students. The program is designed to help the school districts reduce paperwork, though educators see other benefits.

“If the kids are not eating a good meal, they are not focused and do not have enough energy for the rest of the day,” Morrison said. “For some of my kids, these are the only meals they get all day.”

Hulbert Superintendent Wayne Ryals said the program allows the school to feed all its children without having to go through the paperwork to determine who is or who is not on free and reduced lunch.

“If we didn’t have the program, we’d have to pay for an additional person to take the lunch money,” Ryals said.

He said Hulbert, which serves pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, has offered the free lunches since he came to the school district in 1998.

“That year we did a free and reduced lunch appraisal and found about 85 percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunches,” he said, adding that the district not only serves free lunches and breakfasts, but also afternoon snacks for younger students and after-school snacks for students in its after-school program.

The district picks up the lunch and breakfast tab for students who do not qualify for the free lunches.

“It probably costs us $75,000 or $80,000 more than we would normally spend,” Ryals said. “But feeding our kids is one of our top priorities. If our kids are not well-nourished, if they are not rested, not healthy, they are not ready to learn.”

Norwood School, a prekindergarten through eighth-grade district, also operates the program at a financial loss, Norwood Superintendent Diana Garnatz said. She said the district has about 88 percent of its students on free lunch and another 3 percent on reduced lunch, meaning the district gets USDA funding for 91 percent of its students.

“We take the loss,” by feeding all the students, she said. “But at least we know they had breakfasts and are prepared to learn and that they had all their lunches.”

The districts provide the free lunches under Provision 3 of the School Lunch Program. The provision allows schools to receive the same level of federal cash and commodity assistance each year for four years. Schools must serve meals to all children at no charge for those years. Schools do not make additional eligibility requirements, but receive the same amount of cash and commodity support they did when their last free and reduced lunch determination was made. Schools electing the alternative must pay the difference between the federal reimbursement and feeding all students.

Woodall School Superintendent Steve Haynes said his school might not qualify for Provision 3 for much longer.

He said the district has grown over the past several years and that most of the newer students do not qualify for free and reduced lunches.

“Back in 1997, we had about 83 percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunches,” Haynes said. “We now have about 65 percent.”



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