Youngstown students may get free lunches this fall

Youngstown students may get free lunches this fall

Youngstown

It turns out there is such a thing as a free lunch.

All city school students will get a free lunch beginning this fall if the district’s application for a new program is approved.

The Community Eligibility Option provides free reimbursement to districts for all students if the district includes 62.5 percent students who are directly certified as eligible through food stamps. In the city school district, 76 percent of students are directly certified while 93 percent of students qualify for free and reduced lunches under federal guidelines.

“That should increase revenue when it comes to the food service fund,” said Superintendent Connie Hathorn. “The food service fund always operates in the black, but it’s great that we have a program like this. Now we can feed all of the kids.”

Donna Smaldino, food services director for the school district, said $15,000 is a conservative estimate of the additional money the district expects to receive in reimbursement through the program. That’s if participation remains the same. If student participation in the lunch program increases, the reimbursement will increase too.

The district serves 4,200 lunches per day.

Smaldino stressed that the district can only get reimbursed for meals that are served.