Subscribe
Jobs
Cars
Real Estate
Apts
Classifieds
Shop
For less than $2, an East Noble student on Monday can eat a breaded pork sandwich, broccoli with cheese, fresh veggies and dip and sliced pears, and wash it all down with a carton of milk.
But more students – in the Noble County district and statewide – are depending on financial aid to buy their school lunches, an early indicator of how the recession has affected Indiana’s youngest residents.
In a report released today, the Indiana Youth Institute says the percentage of Indiana students eligible for free lunches and textbooks continued to climb through the last school year to 28.2 percent, an 8 percent increase since 2000.
Last year, the federal government spent $8.7 billion on the National School Lunch Program. Children whose families earn at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level – $27,560 for a family of four – are eligible for free meals. Those earning 130 percent to 185 percent of the poverty level, up to $39,220 for a family of four, can get reduced-price meals at no more than 40 cents.
The data on free- and reduced-price lunches are available through the Indiana Department of Education. The non-profit Indiana Youth Institute, as part of its annual Kids Count in Indiana Data Book, collects and analyzes the data annually because participation is one of the best indicators of child poverty, said Bill Stanczykiewicz, president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute. The agency works to promote the healthy development of children by serving institutions and people who work on their behalf.
“The greatest issue, from our standpoint, is awareness,” Stanczykiewicz said. “These are real kids, filling out pieces of paper to be part of a program.”
Kendallville-based East Noble, where 35 percent of students received free or reduced-price lunches during the last school year, was rocked this month by news that Dalton Corp. will close its Kendallville foundry in March, eliminating 200 jobs.
Dalton’s announcement spurred more fretting in a county that already has a higher-than-average unemployment rate. East Noble’s total of students receiving free and reduced-price lunches has already climbed to 41 percent this year, Assistant Superintendent Ann Linson said.
At one building – South Side Elementary School in Kendallville – 69 percent of students receive free or reduced-priced lunches as of October, up 10 percent from last year, Linson said.
East Noble had been exploring changing its school year to a “balanced calendar,” which would have included three-week breaks in November and March to offer intervention and intermediary studies.
This week, the school district announced it would delay those plans until further notice, given the economic climate. In addition to the worry that the families of current students already are suffering financially, the school district is concerned Dalton Corp.’s closing will decrease the district’s enrollment if parents flee the county in search of work.
In Allen County, the number of kids receiving free and reduced-price lunches rose 1.5 percent last year from a year earlier, according to the Indiana Youth Institute data.
At Fort Wayne’s largest school district, Fort Wayne Community Schools, the increase during that same time period was just more than 3 percent. Already this year, the district’s total has jumped an additional 4 percent, to 63.7 percent of students as of last month.
The percentages might not seem like much, until the numbers are translated into kids, Fort Wayne Community Schools spokeswoman Krista Stockman said. The recent increase means nearly 800 more Fort Wayne Community Schools students are receiving free and reduced-price lunches than this time last year, according to the district’s records.
Because enrollment in the free and reduced-price lunch program is voluntary, the school district has been trying hard to make sure every parent knows it’s available, said Y. Craig Martin, director of student services.
Part of that job entails convincing parents – especially those not used to using social services – to put aside their pride and accept help.
“It’s not our principal job, but it’s our secondary one, and clearly a very important one,” Martin said.
Before taking his current job a year ago, Martin, a 20-year employee of the district, was principal at Lincoln Elementary, where more than 60 percent of students are on the lunch program today.
Of course, poverty, especially in an urban school district, isn’t new. But the lack of good jobs available concerns Martin.
“It trickles down to the kids,” he said.
Beyond the lunch program, Martin said the district’s clothing bank has also seen an increase in need.
The Indiana Youth Institute’s Stanczykiewicz said clothing and food banks illustrate a short-term way Hoosiers can address the growing needs in their community.
But Stanczykiewicz said the long-term goal of reports like this is to illustrate the importance of eliminating poverty at its roots. Data show that children in single-parent families, for example, are five to six times more likely to live in poverty, he said.
Stanczykiewicz said he’s not placing blame for all societal ills on the single parent, or saying a child raised in a single-parent household is doomed. He points to a high-profile example of a successful child of a single mother: President-elect Barack Obama.
But the data deserve attention as a way of tracing the roots of poverty, Stanczykiewicz said.
“As a society, people can be hesitant to talk about it,” he said.
aturner@jg.net
