Food Programs Serve Low Income Students in The Hudson Valley
By: Marika Cygert, Amanda Guy & Carly Horowitz
In a world where 795 million people don’t have enough food to lead a healthy life, some students believe it “isn’t cool” to show signs of hunger. These children are part of the 79 percent of Poughkeepsie Middle School students who receive free meals in school. These students are not only struggling with food insecurity, but with the added stress of stigma.
“Sometimes when the students are saying ‘Oh, I don’t like the food’ or ‘I’m not hungry’” there may be underlying social concerns lingering in the minds of middle school students. “It’s like a ‘too-cool’ thing,” said Simone Stewart, social worker at Poughkeepsie Middle School.
To combat food insecurity, millions of children in schools are served meals daily through the United States Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.
Poughkeepsie Middle School Reduced Price Breakfast and Lunch Program
According to the 2016–2017 Poughkeepsie School District-School Report Card Data, a total of 3,366 students out of approximately 4,600 were deemed eligible for free lunch. Additionally, 2 percent of students fell into the income category that received reduced-priced lunch.
Criteria that determines whether or not a student qualifies for free or reduced-price meals includes household size and annual income. Some children are automatically eligible for free meals without the need to verify household income because they receive food stamps or Medicaid benefits. Other low-income families can apply for free or reduced-price meals by submitting an application to their school.
Stewart upholds that she is working in a “high-need population” and therefore, the free and reduced price food programs are very important for these students.
A new protocol was recently added to their already existing program. If students come in late, they are still allowed to get breakfast. In previous years, if a child was late to school, they were left to learn on an empty stomach until lunchtime.
According to the USDA, in 2016, the average daily participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) was 30.4 million students for lunch and 14.6 million for breakfast.
The program at Poughkeepsie Middle School accommodates students with breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is no specific protocol in regards to students receiving food at home after being absent. Stewart shared that a summer food program including breakfast and lunch is also available to students.
Others may not want to express their need for food. “They have pride,” Stewart said.
Stewart makes an effort to lessen the stigma around receiving free or reduced lunch by offering her help to all students. In the beginning of the year, she explains her role as a social worker and encourages everyone to seek her help if they don’t have something they need at home, like food or toothpaste. Stewart reiterated how important this food program is to those who come from low-income households and need help in receiving nutritious meals.
Woodlands Middle School Reduced Price Breakfast and Lunch Program
In 2018, school cafeterias served approximately 5 billion lunches and nearly three-quarters of those lunches were free or at a reduced-price.
Fifty-seven percent of students who attend Woodlands Middle High School qualify for free or reduced lunch. However, unlike the Poughkeepsie Middle School there is less of a stigma related to the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs.
Tyrone Postell, the District Wide School Security Officer, notes that he does not think a stigma related to the free or reduced lunch program is prevalent. “I know that when I was in high school, it was like a joke if you had it, but nowadays I think that there are so many families that are displaced, especially in our closer community, it is becoming more popular and a large percent of our student body has free or reduced price lunch,” said Postell.
Donovan Guy, who works with the school district and has been a social worker for over 30 years, believes that the lack of stigma is largely due to Gary O’Grady, the Food Service Director for the Greenburgh Central 7 School District. According to Guy, “Gary is a valuable person within the school. The food looks appetizing, it looks like something you would get from a four star restaurant. The kids don’t really make fun of the food too much.”
O’Grady oversees four schools within the district including Woodlands Middle High School. He has been in this role for six years and says that his favorite part is serving both the students and staff members, ensuring that everyone has an enjoyable dining experience.
“Gary tries new things, he tries to open up the food palette as much as he can with the New York State guidelines. He tries to bring in things that are a little different and I think he does a good job,” said Postell.
The hard work of O’Grady and rest of his staff is noticed by the students as well as teachers and faculty. Guy believes that the food service department has contributed a large amount to the positive environment of the school in more ways than people realize. “I think it has a tremendous amount of value to the stability of the school. The pizza looks appealing, the salad looks fresh, the kids are happy and they look forward to eating at school. There is always a long line for lunch. For the most part, kids eat and they are healthy,” Guy said.
O’Grady notes the importance of building a relationship with children in order to receive feedback. He says that he constantly asks students for new ideas and what they would like to see. He enlists this feedback from students at all four schools.
School districts must stay within a budget constraint to receive meal reimbursements largely determined by the USDA. Low-income children receive meals for free or at a reduced price, and USDA provides higher reimbursements for those meals.
There is a large variety of food at Woodlands Middle High School, all of which follows the USDA criteria. “Depending on the menu for the day, we have standard things. Upstairs we have a deli, quesadilla and taco bar, and the hot line. We also have the grab and go section daily. It includes burgers, cheeseburgers, chicken patties, popcorn chicken, french fries and tater tots,” said O’Grady.
Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York
The Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York partners with high-need middle and high schools to provide programs that lessen the impact of food insecurity on young children. Some programs include a food pantry that operates all year round for students, a summer food service program and the “backpack program.”
Betsy Dickson, Director of Children’s Programs at the Regional Food Bank, explained that the backpack program sends food home with students on Friday evenings to last them the weekend. The program is privately funded by community donors and provides children with kid-friendly and non-perishable food. The food bank has an open door policy with this program: any school that is able to secure funding through grants, community donors and churches can be a part of the backpack program. The backpack includes two breakfast items (cereal, oatmeal packets, graham crackers, granola bars), three entrées (mac & cheese, PB & J, Spaghettios, tuna, or soup), a loaf of bread, a milk card for a gallon of milk (distributed every other week), an egg card for a dozen eggs (distributed every other week), fresh fruits, canned vegetables and two snacks (cookies, popcorn, pudding, etc.). The backpack program can be provided to middle schools but it is better received in elementary schools due to less stigma. The Poughkeepsie Elementary School has the backpack program in place.
The food pantry program is provided to middle schools and high schools that are in low income neighborhoods. Local areas like Red Hook, Wappingers, Pine Bush and Wallkill are all in the process of joining the school pantry program through a Hannaford “Fuel Kids at School” grant. Although Newburgh High School and Middletown High School do not currently participate in the school pantry program, they do receive the backpack program. Many schools are receiving extra help thanks to the Regional Food Bank.
“The school can tell us what they need based on students likes and dislikes, and other factors, but the schools direct us on what they want,” said Dickson. Some things in the food pantry include ramen noodles, mac and cheese and graham crackers. Students are able to access the pantry at any time and take things as they need them.
Dickson also runs the summer food service program, a sister program of the reduced breakfast and lunch programs. Children are provided with food during the summer season at parks, community centers, pools and camps.
The Regional Food Bank has partnered with several elementary, middle and high schools to decrease the amount of food insecurity in New York. But even with their help, it’s difficult to help everyone who needs it.
“Our capacity is the issue: the need is greater than we can meet. I have four full time staff and we can never say ‘We’ve met the need’ because it’s far greater than anything we could meet, ” said Dickson.
Nutrition and Development
The National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs provide nutritious meals that foster academic and social development of students. Proper nutrition is vital for young children to foster optimal development. When children have a lack of food intake, their cognition and overall school performance is affected. The ever-present thought of when one’s next meal will be adds a degree of stress to a child’s life which can get in the way of other thought processes.
Breakfast being the most important meal of the day is a common saying that holds true, especially for developing children who are obtaining an education. It’s a proven point. “If you start with a well-balanced healthy breakfast, you perform better in school. Depending on the time of day, lunch gives the students more energy in their classes, extracurriculars, sports, etc.,” said O’Grady.
Postell addressed the idea of some students having very little to eat on the weekends because they come from high need and low income households.
“Some of these children leave here getting breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday. Then there’s Saturday and Sunday,” said Postell. “And it might be that time of the month, where the refrigerator is kind of empty. So now they come back on Monday after barely eating over the weekend and that’s when the behavioral issues and lack of energy begin, the anxieties and all that stuff.”
Additionally, Postell noticed that students who aren’t eating three meals a day experience some kind of anxiety. “They are temperamental or lack energy and as a result often sleep in class because they are not getting enough food,” he said.
Food insecurity has the ability to affect children’s cognitive, behavioral, and emotional performance. Mandela Holland, history teacher at Woodlands Middle High School, believes that nutritious food is vital for a student’s overall performance. “If you have a first period class and a kid hasn’t had breakfast, you can tell right away. It will manifest in a number of ways: anger, fatigue, apparent disinterest and something that appears to be a cavalier attitude,” he said.
Holland adds that because these young kids bodies are growing and their maturing rapidly, they need to eat more often. Students need lots of energy to stay awake, learn and have an overall positive experience at school.
“Food is tremendously important. Kids can’t learn if they’re hungry,” Guy said. “We have to reinforce the value of a good education and put some energy into giving these kids everything they need to do their best.”
Stewart expresses her overall liking of the food program at Poughkeepsie Middle School. “When students eat, they can concentrate more in class. They have better peer interaction. Academically, they do better,” said Stewart. “They’re not worried about being hungry, their stomach is not growling, they’re not thinking about food. Overall, it’s a good program for these students.”
According to Dickson, “The Regional Food Bank did a study not too long ago in Schenectady, N.Y., where we have our largest backpack program, with over 1,000 kids in the school district. We did a study looking at their grades, attendance, disciplinary actions and nurse visits and the backpack program helped improve all of that.”
Dickson also said the backpack program makes an impact on the children. “The regional food bank is in a position to give food to hungry children. We can really make an impact,” she said. “The children who participate in these programs often exhibit anxiety around food like hoarding, stealing, and taking food home to their family.”
Dickson stressed the importance of these programs for children in need. “Obviously it’s a critical intervention,” she said. “Our programs as well as the breakfast and reduced lunch program are able to provide food to kids, no matter what is going on at home.”
Improvements to the Program
Although the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs highly benefit children in need, there is always room for improvement.
From Stewart’s observations at the Poughkeepsie Middle School, the quality of food that students are being served is not necessarily enjoyable for many. Stewart said, “If the food was tailored more towards the plates of what the children would typically receive during a family dinner, it could foster more satisfaction.” Although the processed food given to students does satisfy their hunger for the time being, its overall nutritional value is undermined. Making the food more enjoyable would be Stewart’s first suggestion to improving the program. She recommends that maybe two days out of the week meals could be served that not only satisfy student’s needs, but their wants as well.
Nationwide, school districts face the challenge of meeting the USDA nutrition standards and ensuring that meals are appealing enough to encourage participation and consumption.
As for Woodlands Middle High School, providing food at after school programs could improve the program. Holland said, “Food is vital. I don’t think schools really pay enough attention because they give you grants for after school programs and say that those grants cannot be used for food. This makes absolutely no sense because if there is no food, there is no focus.”
Although Dickson highlighted the benefits to school food program said explained that there are far more factors that determine if a family is in need of the free and reduced breakfast and lunch program. “There is much more that influences food insecurity: health insurance, family crisis, loss of employment and loss of transportation,” she said.
There are instances where families with a good income experience an unplanned extra expense that disables them from providing nutritious food for their children. If a family member gets sick and doesn’t have health insurance, money is going towards paying medical bills, causing the family to struggle.
“Household income can be a good indicator but becomes troublesome when it’s the only thing being looked at,” Dickson said.
A child from a three-person family with a household income at or below 130 percent of the Federal poverty threshold would be eligible to receive meals for free. In other words, this family’s income would amount to $2,311 monthly and $27,700 yearly. Household incomes between 130 and 185 percent of the threshold are eligible to receive meals for a reduced price of no more than $0.40 for lunch and $0.30 for breakfast; and other students pay a set price. Eligibility is determined on a sliding scale depending on the household size.
