Article by: Lena Miano of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Photo: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo
The Little Rock School District is one step closer to offering two free meals to every student at all but three of the district's schools when students return to the classroom in August.
The district-wide effort to increase the number of students receiving free meals at school has been a goal for the district for several years and was officially set in motion Thursday when the Little Rock School Board voted to allow the administration to begin applying for and implementing the Community Eligibility Provision meal service option.
The community eligibility option, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, allows high-poverty schools in low-income areas to serve free breakfast and lunch meals to all students, regardless of household income and meal applications.
Instead of families fronting the costs and incurring meal debt, the option Little Rock hopes to implement allows the district to be reimbursed for meal costs using a formula based on the percentage of students who are eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and other meal service programs.
Students in Arkansas are also directly certified to receive free meals if they are enrolled in Medicaid and have a household income falling below 130% of the federal poverty level. The direct certification process, completed through data matching, was adopted for the 2024-25 school year but was first implemented in April of this year.
The district's decision must now be reviewed by the state Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure the district meets all eligibility requirements.
Stephanie Walker Hynes, the Little Rock district's child nutrition director, said the option "opens doors" for the district to invest its child nutrition funds into other programs such as summer and holiday break meals as well as functional improvements in school cafeterias.
According to an update given by chief financial officer Kelsey Bailey Thursday, the district's child nutrition fund balance is approximately $1.16 million. The department's revenue -- which covers food, labor, benefits for employees, supplies, equipment and more -- is generated by meals served to students.
Previously, 13 of the district's schools operated as Provision 2 schools wherein students who were eligible based on meal applications and household income received breakfast and lunch at no cost, Hynes added.
All schools would now provide a free breakfast to every student, and lunch would also be provided for free at each school except for Forest Park, Don R. Roberts and Jefferson elementary schools.
These three schools have a "low claiming percentage" of students who are directly certified for other meal service programs, Hynes said, adding that applications will still be used at those schools for students who do qualify for free lunch as well.
Out of the district's total student population of 19,565 this school year, there are a combined roughly 1,753 students at Jefferson, Forest Park and Roberts elementary schools, meaning more than 17,800 students would benefit from the district's new provision.
"We are 100% looking forward to this," Hynes said of the district moving toward adopting the new option that will reduce the paperwork burden for the district and families, take away any stigma for students who do or do not qualify for free meals and will "pause" the majority of the future meal debt of families.
The district accrued roughly $200,000 this year in meal debt, some of which was covered through fundraising and donations with families having to make up the difference.
The community eligibility provision "takes away barriers" for families whose students opted out of meals they were qualified to receive because of the meal debt, the stigma or the paperwork involved, Hynes added.
While any previous debt from the district's schools is still outstanding, debt would not continue accumulating for families other than those at Forest Park, Jefferson and Roberts where the debt as of May 16 had amounted to just over $20,000 collectively.
The district would be reimbursed for all breakfast and lunch meals at each of the district's remaining schools.
"It's a new way that we're doing things," Hynes said, adding that the community eligibility provision accounts for "real, human situations" rather than just statistics like household income.
The Little Rock district's move to increase the number of students who can be served free meals at school comes near the end of a legislative session which saw Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signing into law a guarantee that all students will receive a free breakfast regardless of whether they qualify for free- or reduced-price meals under federal law.
Two years prior, state legislators passed a bill allowing students eligible for reduced-priced meals -- based on family income -- to receive food at no cost to them.
Hynes said that during the pandemic, when all public schools in the state offered free meals to every student, the number of students actually taking advantage of the meals was higher than years when those meals were offered at reduced prices for some and free for others.
Last fall, a report from the federal agriculture department found that Arkansas was the hungriest state in the country in 2023, with rising percentages of households experiencing low or very low food security and ranking below the national average for food insecurity levels.
During the 2024-25 school year, 72.42% of Little Rock School District students qualified for free- or reduced-price lunches with 5,396 out of 19,565 students receiving free meals, according to data available on the state Department of Education's website.
Just over 60% of students across the state qualified for free- or reduced-price meals this past school year, according to the state department's data.