Push for universal free school lunch gets CEC 21 support

The full board of Community Education Council (CEC) District 21 was in agreement: the city needs to provide free and health school lunch for all New York City public school students.

The decision was easy, said CEC 21 President Heather Fiorica, because “we understand that parents in certain financial situations need it as well, so we want all families to have that opportunity.”

The vote means that CEC 21 will formally call upon Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo to support universal free school lunch to students, “irrespective of the income levels of their parents.”

CEC 21’s resolution also specifies that not only stand-alone middle schools (grades 6-8) should receive free school lunch, said Fiorica, because “we also have elementary and junior high students together in one school, but K-8 schools are not eligible even though they are a middle school.”

The middle school specification is the result of de Blasio and the City Council’s Fiscal Year 2015 city budget, which allotted $6.25 million towards providing universal free lunch to middle schoolers.

It was a compromise from the Council’s advocacy for universal free lunch to all 1.1 million students.

Explaining the compromise, de Blasio stated that he fears risking federal Title 1 funding that is based on the number of low-income students enrolled in school districts. If universal free lunch is provided, he said, then those numbers might not be as easily ascertained.

“We are not convinced, at this point, that it won’t unfortunately have the negative impact of reducing our federal funding substantially,” he said in May, 2014.

However, the National School Lunch Act has an alternative Community Eligibility Provision that allows schools and districts to prove qualification based on district-wide low-income levels – determined via existing data on food stamp, cash assistance and Medicaid eligibility.

Currently, only students whose parents fill out paperwork verifying their income level and Social Security number can qualify for free or reduced price lunch. Many parents fear providing such personal information and fear the stigma on their children of being low-income.

In 2013, “one-third of the 780,000 students eligible for free or reduced price meals did not participate in the subsidized school lunch program,” noted CEC 21’s resolution.

Still, it is a start, noted Liz Accles, executive director of Community Food Advocates, whose Lunch 4 Learningcampaign celebrated the launch of universal free middle school lunch on September 20 with Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña as a special guest.

“We think that this is a major first step and the chancellor’s committed to doing and getting it right,” said Accles. “We’re very optimistic that it’ll expand.”

“We’re hoping that in the future they not only do freestanding middle schools, but K-8 as well, and K-5,” said Fiorica. “For our children, we want better and we’re hoping this is a step in the right direction.”