Students eating their fill as schools return to free lunch applications – Alpena News

Sep 29, 2022
News Photo by Julie Riddle Students enjoy a lunch period at Besser Elementary School in Alpena on Tuesday.
ALPENA — Classroom lessons stick better when kids have food in their bellies.
After two years of feeding students lunch for free, schools once again have to ask parents to share personal information with the state to get free or reduced-cost school lunches.
Parents and guardians of more than half of Northeast Michigan students — about the same percentage as in previous years — did go back to filling out those forms, and their kids have access to food experts say children need to thrive at school.
An uptick in unpaid lunch bills shows other parents may be struggling financially, and slim staffing and high food costs challenge school lunch providers, but kids are still happily downing their corn dogs and fruit cups in school lunch rooms, said Nic Wiser, Alpena Public Schools food services director.
If parents are struggling to provide meals, all they have to do is ask, and school officials will find a way to get all kids fed, Wiser said.
“We take that on with vigor,” he said. “We don’t want to see kids go hungry, that’s for sure.”
For the past two school years, many lunch bags stayed home as federal waivers allowed any public school student to eat school lunches at no cost, regardless of income.
This summer, after those waivers expired, APS and other districts announced parents would once again have to submit applications for free meals.
About 54% of Northeast Michigan students qualify to eat free in their school cafeteria, according to the Michigan Department of Education.
Children qualify for free school meals if their family income falls at or below 130% of the federal poverty level.
For a family of four, that currently equals just over $36,000 per year, or $3,007 per month.
Another three percent of Alpena-area kids qualify for reduced-price meals — costing them no more than 40 cents per lunch — with a family income between 130% and 185% of the poverty level, or about $51,000 per year for a family of four.
Check out the interactive graphic below. Story continues below the graphic.

Already this school year, Wiser has noted an increase in the number of families with lunch accounts that have fallen behind.
If a student asks for lunch with a zero balance in their account, lunch workers will feed the child, then deal with the money later, he said.
At four Alpena schools — Hinks, Lincoln, and Sanborn elementary schools and ACES Academy — students can eat free without applying.
The district still asks those parents to fill out a household status report to collect some financial information. Those reports, along with free meal applications, mean federal and state funding that allows schools to better serve students, Wiser said.
School meal programs nationwide currently struggle with product shortages, rising costs, and labor shortages, making it hard for schools to meet federal nutrition standards, according to the School Nutrition Association.
The high cost of groceries residents see at grocery stores does trickle into the school lunchroom, but Alpena schools have been able to obtain needed supplies, Wiser said, saying that federal funds help ease the high cost burden.
The district lacks several food service staff members but can get by with current staff for now, he said.
Rumblings at the federal level — like a National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health issued on Tuesday by the White House Domestic Policy Council — recognize such obstacles to feeding students and promise free lunches will eventually reach more kids.
Until then, agencies like the Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency will help fill the gaps, said Dorothy Pintar, NEMCSA director of community programs.
Parents who learn they don’t fit federal guidelines can turn to NEMCSA, who can connect them to food sources with less-stringent eligibility rules.
Holiday meals, weekend food backpack programs, and pantries at several Alpena schools help families fill their kids’ bellies and increase their chances of success at school, Pintar said.
The two years of automatic free food eased, at least for time, any perceived stigma of asking for food assistance at school, and Pintar hopes parents set aside any worries about asking for such help now.
“You’re only watching out for your kids,” she said.
Alpena parents can fill out a free lunch application at alpenaschools.com/district/food-service or complete a referral form for food help at nemcsa.org/services/school-success-program-for-all-grades.
Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, [email protected] or on Twitter @jriddleX.
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