By Trent Moore
The Cullman Times
CULLMAN — For Bethany Wells, a mother of three school-age children in Cullman, free and reduced school lunches are about the only way to make ends meet in the struggling economy.
“I'm a single mother living paycheck to paycheck,” Wells said.
Even though she works a full-time job at a local doctor’s office, Wells said her family still has to use the free and reduced lunches program to have enough money left to pay her bills.
“I couldn't imagine trying to buy groceries and pay for lunches right now,” she said.
Wells is not alone in Cullman County, as the amount of local students receiving free and reduced lunches has climbed to nearly record numbers this year, up more than six percent from last year.
Approximately 58 percent of Cullman County Board of Education students currently receive free and reduced lunches, according to the latest statistics available — up from 52 percent last year.
“The newest numbers aren’t out yet, but right now we would be around 60 percent,” county schools child nutrition program director Donna Lewis said.
As unemployment in Cullman County has continued to hover around double-digits, Lewis said more families than ever have come to schools looking for sign-up sheets.
“We’ve had people who have never filled out an application coming in recently,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of families and parents come in laid off.”
As of November, all but five Cullman County schools had more than 50 percent of students receiving free and reduced lunches.
“Those schools that weren’t (above) were very close, only within a few points,” Lewis said. “It’s the highest it’s ever been.”
Cullman City Schools support services coordinator Anita Overturf said the city system has also seen a noticeable rise in families seeking free and reduced lunches.
“We are having a lot more people apply because of job loss,” she said. “The economy is obviously affecting people’s finances.”
Compared to numbers from November of last year, participation in the city school’s free lunch program has increased by 4 percent, while the reduced lunch program has declined by 2 percent.
Overturf said the decrease only occurred because more families are qualifying for the free lunch program.
“A lot of those qualifying families moved from reduced lunches to free, so that’s the reason it would technically be listed as a decline,” she said. “But, it shows people’s finances are hurting even more.”
Alabama school officials report that the number of children receiving free or reduced-price lunches has risen from 389,301 last year to 411,228 this year across the state, a 5.6 percent increase in the number of public school students receiving free or reduced-price lunches. That accounts for approximately 56 percent of the state’s public school students, according to the Associated Press.
‘Free breakfast’ pilot program
With the amount of students qualifying for free and reduced lunches steadily rising, the Cullman County Board of Education is kicking off a pilot program to offer free breakfast for all students at qualifying schools.
The first campus to offer the program will be Harmony School in January, which currently has 73 percent of students receiving free and reduced lunches.
Lewis said the program needs to have heavy participation — approximately 95 percent — to successfully operate and receive reimbursements from the state.
“I expect it will be a great turnout, because that community really rallies around the school,” Lewis said.
In addition to providing a free meal for students in the slow economy, Lewis said school officials hope the program will produce other benefits.
“We’re going to see if the kids having breakfast helps reduce absenteeism and improves test scores,” she said. “A hungry child would not be thinking about their school work, they’ll be thinking about when they get to eat. We feel it will be a great success.”
The small size of Harmony makes it an ideal campus for the pilot program, Lewis said.
“This is a self-contained school with one cafeteria,” she said. “You have just one principal over the school, as opposed to two and three trying to coordinate.”
If the pilot program is successful, it could eventually expand to other eligible schools.
* Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 225.
