More students seek free and reduced-rate school lunches

Some suburban school districts in South Jersey are seeing substantial increases in the number of children applying for free and reduced-price lunches, far outpacing statewide figures and student population growth.

Eligibility - a key indicator of poverty - has risen as administrators try harder to identify students who qualify, the economic downturn has strained family finances, and demographics have shifted.

Consider the Lenape Regional High School District, where the numbers are small but have grown rapidly since 2003.

Its 7,443 students come from eight Burlington County towns, including Evesham, Medford, and Mount Laurel, where the median family income is close to $100,000. The district saw one of the highest increases in the state between the 2003-04 and 2008-09 school years, at 131 percent, according to figures released by the state last month.

"It really is a great feeling to know that these kids are being served," said Connie Stewart, comptroller for the Lenape district. "But I think people in this area would be very surprised."

Applications have risen 86 percent in Cherry Hill schools - about the same as in the considerably less affluent Black Horse Pike Regional School District in Camden County.

The numbers have more than doubled at Rancocas Valley Regional High School District, which educates 2,267 students from five Burlington County towns, including Mount Holly.

In Bordentown, the regional school district's rate has increased 61 percent.

The recession's full impact on individual districts is not known. Data compiled by the New Jersey Department of Education for each school year are current only through October of that year. Since last fall, however, joblessness and the overall financial climate have worsened significantly.

Acknowledging forecasts showing greater demand, New Jersey appropriated in its 2009-10 budget an additional $675,000 in state money to supplement the federal meal program.

Between the fall of 2007 - when the economy was in its early stages of faltering - and the same time in 2008, the number of students applying for free and reduced-price lunches jumped about 7 percent statewide.

"You see that across the board, throughout the nation, and I think most people are pointing to it being due to the economic situation," said Lynne Richmond, spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture. "There's also more outreach trying to ensure that those who do qualify can have access to a hot lunch at school."

Some schools have become more aggressive in increasing participation in the program because of a change in the way New Jersey calculates the amount of aid it allots to districts, according to Cecilia Zalkind, executive director of the Association for Children of New Jersey. The new funding formula expands the state's definition of "at risk" students to those who qualify for reduced-price lunches, not just free lunches.

When reporting their enrollment numbers to the state, districts now give an additional weight to students for factors that include such eligibility. The weight increases for districts with a higher concentration of students receiving those meals.

"While we've had communities in our state that have suffered from high poverty rates for a long time, we have some suburban communities where parents have been working that have now been affected by the job market and unemployment," Zalkind said.

Other school districts with substantial increases since 2003 include Clearview Regional and Greenwich Township in Gloucester County, and Sterling and Brooklawn in Camden County.

Demand for free and reduced lunches also has grown nationwide. In Pennsylvania, applications have risen 3 percent between the fall of 2007 and 2008, and 11 percent since the same time in 2003.

For the school year that just ended, children in families of four earning less than $27,560 qualified for free meals. Those from families of four earning less than $39,220 were eligible for reduced meals.

At Lenape - Burlington County's largest school district - the number of students applying for free and reduced lunch has jumped from 127 to 293 since 2003, though the student population has grown by a fraction of that.

Stewart, the comptroller, recalled that administrators several years ago "really took a serious and hard look, wondering why the numbers for free and reduced were relatively low for this large of a district." They figured more students were eligible than received the meals, she said.

Among other things, the district started having its feeder schools issue Lenape a list of eighth-grade students eligible for free and reduced lunches. That way Lenape could ensure those students completed a new application when they reached high school, and follow up if they did not return one, Stewart said.

Lenape also began a free breakfast program last fall.

In Cherry Hill, officials say the district has improved at getting free- and reduced-lunch forms out to families at the beginning of the school year. And the district, like Lenape and others in South Jersey, has started using technology allowing everyone to pay for meals the same way, lessening the stigma for participating students.

Bordentown Regional in Northern Burlington County also has a growing number of low-income students, said business administrator Peggy Ianoale.

And the district, along with others, is mindful of the economy.

"We have seen an increase in students whose parents are out of work," Ianoale said. "Last year we saw a little spike in free and reduced lunch. I don't know what's going to happen this year, but I expect we'll probably see the same thing."

At Rancocas Valley Regional, where figures jumped from 160 in 2003 to 360 last fall, the district has already seen an even more dramatic uptick. An additional 120 students applied for free and reduced lunches over the past school year, though that will not be reported to the state for several months, according to assistant superintendent Robert Sapp.

"Maybe the economy is making people look at it," he said. "Kids aren't as uncomfortable at looking at is as they used to be."