Funding Change Place Emphasis on Meal Program

By Noelle Kronberg
EAGLE TIMES EDUCATION REPORTER
CLAREMONT, N.H. — New Hampshire’s funding for education has made a shift to put more emphasis on Free and Reduced Lunch enrollment, prompting Claremont, a district that has seen a decline in program enrollment in recent years, to seek creative options for bolstering application numbers.

Families who qualify for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps) or Medicaid automatically qualify, but there is no direct link between Medicaid and the lunch program, so families still need to fill out an application.

Currently, 1,105 school-aged children in Claremont are enrolled in Medicaid. However, the number of children enrolled in the Free and Reduced Lunch program is significantly less than that. And, funding provided to the district for each student enrolled in the program are increasing as other funds fall.

Ensuring students are enrolled not only ensures students have full stomachs, it also means more funding for Claremont schools.

District Business Administrator Mary Henry and state representatives for Claremont Hope Damon, Gary Merchant and John Cloutier spoke on the program during a recent meeting of the Claremont School Board.

The district plans to mail out applications tand use the school messaging system to reach all families. The district will also have a booth set up at the Back-to-School Festival on Aug. 26 and will hold a gift card drawing as an incentive for any families that fill out the application, regardless of if the family qualifies or not.

Henry emphasized that only certain district employees can handle the applications and that she feels getting families to apply is the district’s responsibility.

“I want the opportunity this year to prove that we can get this done,” she said.

Representatives Damon, Merchant and Cloutier see the problem as a community project, where “everyone is working together and rowing the same boat,” as Rep. Merchant said.

Merchant and Damon have reached out to local resource organizations, such as Turning Points Network, TLC Family Resource Center, the Claremont Soup Kitchen, Baby Steps, Southwestern Community Services, West Central Behavioral Health, and faith communities to garner support.

“No one is disinterested in getting Claremont’s children fed.” Rep. Damon said.

With the representatives’ project, these organizations would share information with the families they serve and help them to fill out the form — a daunting task for some. Families themselves would be responsible for returning the forms to the schools in order to keep enrollment confidential and to comply with federal laws.

The Claremont School Board offered no response to the representatives’ presentation and request for $4,000 other than a brief thanks. Damon, Merchant and Cloutier are hopeful for a future agenda action item. In the meantime, they plan to shift their focus to using the same community resources to raise awareness of and support families in applying for the SNAP program.

To qualify for free meals under the Free and Reduced Lunch program, families must meet the income requirement of 130 percent or less above the federal poverty line (the same qualifier as Medicaid). Or families can qualify if they participate in the SNAP program and their income is 200 percent or less above the federal poverty line. Additionally, SNAP helps provide nutrition for students and their families outside of school.

Applications will be kept confidential.