Changes coming to elementary school cafeterias?

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Students at Baldwin’s five elementary schools may see a change in their lunchtime eating habits next year. The Board of Education is currently mulling over the idea of joining the National School Lunch Program, a federally assisted meal program.

Baldwin is one of the 14 school districts out of Long Island’s 129 districts that do no currently belong to the program. Of those 14, three are K-12 districts.

Currently, elementary school students bring their lunch from home since there are no kitchens in their schools. The middle school and high school each have kitchens where food is prepared and then sold to students.

Elementary school students who have not signed up for free or reduced lunch and do not bring lunch to school are given a lunch consisting of a sandwich, fruit and milk free of charge and then asked to bring in money the next day. Food is prepared at BMS and BHS each morning and delivered to nearby elementary schools. Carol Smith, assistant business manager, said that kids and parents are pretty good at bringing in money if they owe, but schools do not recoup it all.

“The kids bring in money if they owe money,” Smith said, “but nobody is not fed.”

Since the 2009-10 school year, the district has budgeted money for “Free Food” for students who need lunches. During the first year, $10,000 was budgeted and $30,000 was spent. The expense has grown each year since — $100,000 was budgeted this school year.

There are currently 446 students who receive free and reduced lunches — nine percent of the student population. But, Smith said, if the district were to join the National School Lunch Program, that number would rise. Now, anyone who asks for a free or reduced lunch gets one, she said, but an application isn’t sent out to the entire school population, which would happen if Baldwin becomes a part of the program.

However, if the district joins the program, it would be eligible for state aid. Since Baldwin is not a part of the program currently, it reports 0 percent of students on free or reduced lunch and therefore receives no aid for it.

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