A Guilderland grandmother called us this week in support of the school district offering its students free breakfasts and lunches.

“All the school districts are hopping on the wagon,” she said, naming several area districts that have announced they will provide free food to all students.

“I have five grandchildren and my two daughters both have hefty grocery bills,” she said, adding, “It costs $16 for each child in Guilderland to buy lunch for a week.”

During the pandemic, for two-and-a-half years, the federal government paid for all students to eat for free. The Free Meals For All waiver expired in June 2022.

This program was a boon for school districts that, in the midst of many onerous restrictions, did not have to pay for food nor keep track of which students were the eligible recipients of free and reduced-price breakfasts and lunches.

However, with the start of the 2022-23 school year, the federal government returned to its original program of families applying for reduced-price or free meals, based on income.

The increase in school districts, both locally and across the nation, offering free breakfast and lunches to all students came about because the United States Department of Agriculture, as announced in late September, lowered the threshold for eligibility from 40 percent of identified students to 25 percent.

“Healthy school meals are an essential part of the school environment — just like teachers, classrooms and books — and set kids up for success and better health,” said Stacy Dean, USDA deputy under secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services, in a statement when the lowered threshold was announced.

“More children are fueled for learning and development when they can count on tasty, nutritious meals at school,” Dean went on. “While there is still more work ahead to ensure every K-12 student in the nation can access healthy school meals at no cost, this is a significant step on the pathway towards that goal.”

Andrew Van Alstyne, Guilderland’s assistant superintendent for business, explained to The Enterprise this week that students are identified not through qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches but rather through their participation in various social programs such as SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, or by being foster children or homeless children.

“It’s more objective,” he said of the system.

The Community Eligibility Provision, known as CEP, is determined on a school-by-school basis, Van Alstyne said. “We’re in the high teens or low 20s,” Van Alstyne said of Guilderland district-wide percentages of needy students, including all seven schools: five elementary schools, Farnsworth Middle School, and Guilderland High School.

The schools with the lowest percentage are Pine Bush and Lynnwood elementary schools, at 13 to 14 percent, he said.

Altamont Elementary School has the highest level but still is not high enough to reach the 25-percent threshold to qualify for the program that would provide free meals for all students, Van Alstyne said.

“We have seen significant growth in need in our student population,” said Van Alstyne, adding, “Not just economic need.”

The pandemic, with resulting school shutdowns, loss of learning, and isolation, exacerbated many problems for schools including mental-health issues, social problems, and academic setbacks.

We urge New York to join the eight enlightened states —  California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont — that have passed laws allowing their schools to provide free healthy meals to all students.

Reams of research supports the fact that students who are well fed are not just healthier in general but, importantly, better at learning.

With Guilderland being in “the high teens or low twenties,” coming close to the 25-percent threshold, we imagine there are many students from households that barely miss the cutoff to be eligible for free and reduced-price school meals.

We hear regularly from food pantries in the district — the Guilderland Food Pantry as well as pantries in Altamont and at St. Madeleine Sophie — that the need in recent years continues to grow even as the pandemic and the added funding that came with it have officially ended.

Also, free food at school would lessen the burden on family budgets as our Guilderland grandmother pointed out.

Such a program would also reduce any stigma students now getting free meals might feel, and it would free up funds for schools to meet other needs.

A state law would be a wise investment in our future. Without it, districts like Guilderland that have considerable need, but not enough to meet even the new lowered federal threshold, are helpless to act. They cannot jump on the bandwagon as our concerned grandmother advocated for.

So, while we wait for our government, at either the state or federal level, to do the right thing — as USDA Deputy Under Secretary Dean said, the federal goal is to “ensure every K-12 student in the nation can access healthy school meals at no cost” — what can individuals do?

Families who are eligible for programs like SNAP should apply for them. We’ve heard stories from people running both church-based and secular food pantries that many people won’t participate out of shame or pride.

We urge people who are eligible to look at it this way: You or your family members have paid into the system through taxes. This is not the proverbial “free lunch”: rather, it is something you have earned and are entitled to.

In New York state, a family of four with a gross annual income of $39,000 is eligible for SNAP. You should apply if you are eligible.

You will be helping not just your family but the larger school community because your household will be added to the school’s tally, helping it to meet the current federal threshold that would provide free meals for all students.

Think of it as a way to make the tally accurate.

Similarly, we urge any household who is eligible for free or reduced-price meals at school to apply for those as well.

A tally from Hunger Solutions New York shows Guilderland with roughly 5,000 students of which roughly 1,000, nearly 20 percent, would qualify for free or reduced-price meals but only 128 eat breakfast and 547 eat lunch.

If 255 more Guilderland students ate a free or reduced-price breakfast to reach the required 70-percent threshold, Hunger Solutions calculates, the district would receive about $75,000 more in annual funding.

So, by using the federal program, students are not only helping themselves but helping their school.

“We’re always looking how best to provide services,” said Van Alstyne, noting the district has a place on its website explaining the qualifications for free and reduced-price meals.

“Did you know that Guilderland Schools offers a wholesome school breakfast meal in all of its buildings every morning?” says the district website. “Studies have shown that eating breakfast improves student’s academic performance, decreases behavioral problems, and improves their overall diet.”

The page also lists meal prices: From kindergarten through eighth grade, breakfast is $1.95 while at the high school it costs $2.50; elementary school lunches cost $3 while lunch costs  at the high school and middle school lunch costs $3.25.

The site provides a link to an application for free meals.

“We’re proactive in trying to get information out,” says Van Alstyne, noting that applications are mailed to district residents each August.

“Materials are available in different languages on the website,” he says. 

In its upper right corner, the website has a pulldown bar that, when clicked on, will translate the page from English to any of 10 different languages, from Arabic to Vietnamese, reflecting the district’s diverse student body.

The website also includes a “Prohibition Against Shaming” policy that says, “Students who cannot pay for a meal or who have unpaid meal debt shall not be publicly identified or stigmatized (including wristbands or hand stamps), required to do chores or work to pay for meals, or have meals thrown away after they have been served.”

It goes on, “District staff shall not discuss a student’s unpaid meal debt in front of other students. The district shall not take any action directed at a student to collect unpaid school meal fees.”

Renée Heller, the district’s food-service directly put it simply to the board when she was new to the job in September 2002; she said she had heard from “a parent concerned she did not have the money and her child would not be eating.”

Regardless of whether or not a child has money in an account, Heller said, a child would be provided with food.

We applaud Guilderland for this approach. Food is a necessity as is human dignity.

We urge our government to act on that precept.