Anti- Austerity in Northern Kentucky: Kids Eat Free

Now this is the right way to respond to families struggling in a recession.

From the Enquirer:

 

All students in Newport Independent Schools, regardless of income, will get free breakfast and lunch every school day beginning this fall.

The district is participating in the Community Eligibility Option program, part of President Obama’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

The program provides free meals to all students in schools in which 40 percent or more of the students receive food stamps or some other form of public aid. All three schools in Newport easily exceed that percentage. As a district, 86 percent are living at or below the federal poverty level.

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It is expected to save some Newport families several hundred dollars a year.

“For so many of our kids, the two meals they get each day are in this building,” said Mark Krebs, principal at Newport Middle School. “And for some of those families, it’s hard to afford them.”


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Program advocates say it will guarantee every student two meals a day, reduce administrative costs with less paperwork and remove the stigma low-income students may experience through the free- and reduced-price program.

That stigma, Middleton said, is a bigger deal than many people may think.

“There are some parents that should have their kids getting the free or reduced-price lunch, but refuse to do it because they’re afraid to be identified that way,” Middleton said. “So this will help them and make sure they get the food they need each day.”