Today, the Associated Press published an interesting profile on the Philadelphia, PA school district and its pilot program for feeding its hungry children through school meals.
In the Philadelphia model, the school district provides free school meals for all children in schools "with a high percentage of low-income students." These "universal" meals are served in schools where at least 75 percent of the student body meets the low-income threshold. In Philly, more than 85 percent of students qualify.
But there's another interesting component of the Philly program: there are no forms necessary to enroll in the program.
By ridding of the forms, food service directors claim it "eliminates the costly bureaucracy that both deters needy families from applying for subsidized meals and stigmatizes those who do complete the forms." According to the AP, experts say many children who are eligible and would benefit from the program do not participate because of language barriers, literacy issues and humiliation when completing the necessary forms.
The district maintains that there's another benefit to the Philly model: the money saved on the administrative costs allows the school to absorb the costs of the free meals not already covered by government reimbursements.
According to the AP, the program "benefits students and especially working parents, who save time and money knowing their children will have a meal waiting for them at school."
The article quotes Janet Hernandez, a mother of three, who says that "sometimes, we need that extra help as far as food goes. That's one thing that we have to worry about as parents."
While Bush Administration officials threatened to close the program by 2010, President Obama's new Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, pledges to continue the program.
Key to the program - and replicating the model elsewhere, like in New York City and Los Angeles, where there is interest - is the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act later this year. An improved Child Nutrition Act is a top priority for the thousands of school food service workers that SEIU represents.
Read the full article here and everything you need to know about the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act here on our partner site, the Campaign for Quality Services.
