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  • JAN-MICHAEL STUMP

    KEVIN KNIGHT

  • JAN-MICHAEL STUMP

    KEVIN KNIGHT
February 27, 2010

TCAPS sees rise in reduced lunch program

BY LINDSAY VANHULLE

TRAVERSE CITY -- Kevin Knight Jr. sounds happy when he recounts how his month-old son was born 37 minutes past midnight the day after he was due.

It's not long until his tone changes, a natural reaction, perhaps, to dealing with adversity. He may come from the School of Hard Knocks, but he knows a lot about the School of Hard Work.

Baby Kevin still needs diapers. And formula. And Knight needs to keep fuel oil in the tank to heat the house he's trying to save from foreclosure. And the other bills don't go away.

It's a lot to ask of a teenager, especially one like Knight, 19, who is trying to earn a diploma from Traverse City High School. It helps, at least, that he doesn't have to pay for school lunch.

Knight is one of nearly 150 students to receive free or low-cost meals this year at the alternative high school. The school's 81 percent participation rate in the meals program, as of this month, was the highest of any Traverse City public schools.

Students know that most of them receive some sort of meal assistance, but it's not widely discussed.

"It's not something to be ashamed of," Knight said. "Every person there is struggling to make something out of nothing.

"It's not a lot of money, but it's money I didn't have in my pocket."

More turn to lunch program

The federal, income-based program in recent years has attracted more of the region's students, a pattern school administrators attribute to a stubborn national recession that for two years has held millions of Americans in a virtual vice grip.

Each of Traverse City's 13 elementary, two middle and three high schools has a greater percentage of students enrolled this year than last, according to raw district data. The ratios are based on the total number of students receiving free, reduced-price or full-price meals.

Traverse Heights and Blair elementary schools also have participation rates near 80 percent. The district average has reached 40 percent.

"This year is our highest year," food service Director Kristen Misiak said. "I don't personally see it dropping back down anytime soon."

When that will happen depends on how quickly the economy recovers. Michigan still has the nation's highest unemployment, and the state faces more difficult budget talks.

Families' lifestyle changes appear to be extending into schools, as more parents request help to feed their children.

Launched in 1946 with the National School Lunch Act, the federal government reimburses school districts for meal costs. Students who pay reduced prices are charged 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch.

A full-price breakfast in Traverse City costs $1.25 for elementary students and $1.50 for secondary students. Lunch is $2.10 for elementary and $2.35 for secondary.

Children whose families receive Michigan food stamps automatically are eligible for the program.

Economy's toll

This year, a family of four that earns $28,665 or less can receive free meals, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees the program. That same family who earned between $28,665 and $40,793 would qualify for a reduced-cost meal.

These days, more of them do.

About 70 percent of the roughly 730 students in Forest Area Community Schools receive free or reduced meals this year, Superintendent John Smith said. Closer to 66 percent of students participated in the Fife Lake district last year.

"Each year we have a rise," Smith said. "We continue to lose students due to the economy. The people that are left in the district, a lot of them are struggling to find work."

In Mancelona, about 750 students in kindergarten through 12th grade receive some form of assistance, Superintendent Jeffery DiRosa said.

Participation ranges from 78 percent in elementary grades to 63 percent for high school students. DiRosa thinks factory closings and job losses, notably Dura Automotive in 2008, have had an influence.

And Leland Public School, where Iris Luna is in fourth grade, has noted a "steady increase" in the number of participants since 2006, Superintendent Mike Hartigan said.

About 40 percent of the K-12 school's 450 students are registered, up from a typical average of 30 percent.

"It's just one thing that I don't have to worry about," said Angela Luna, of Northport, whose daughter Iris, 9, eats free at school. "When I send her to school, I know that the teachers are going to treat her fairly and she's going to be eating right."

A single parent, Luna receives food stamps and visits food pantries to supplement her work cleaning houses. In winter, when business is slower, she cleans five homes about every other week, and tallies between $800 and $900 each month.

One client dropped her after the recession began, but otherwise Luna, a member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, said she has been fairly insulated.

Neither she nor Iris believe the program casts a spotlight on poor children, because many students have electronic accounts that shield that information to a limited number of viewers.

Iris barely notices a difference.

"I don't really know why some people bring in checks," she said. "I don't."

That's how it should be, administrators said, citing computer meal systems as privacy boons that protect students from classmates' looks and questions.

In some cases, little or no cash exchanges hands. For anyone.

"There's a comfort that there is no stigma out there," said Jim Emery, superintendent of Bellaire Public Schools, where about half of his 525 students qualify. "Anybody and everybody can go through the line, and nobody knows."

By the numbers

The percentage of students receiving free and reduced meals in Traverse City's public schools, as of Feb. 18:

-- Traverse Heights Elementary: 80 percent

-- Blair Elementary: 76 percent

-- Interlochen Elementary: 58 percent

-- Cherry Knoll Elementary: 48 percent

-- Long Lake Elementary: 43 percent

-- Central Grade School: 42 percent

-- Silver Lake Elementary: 42 percent

-- Courtade Elementary: 39 percent

-- Willow Hill Elementary: 27 percent

-- Westwoods Elementary: 22 percent

-- Old Mission Peninsula School: 22 percent

-- Eastern Elementary: 21 percent

-- Montessori: 21 percent

-- East Middle School: 41 percent

-- West Middle School: 37 percent

-- Traverse City High School: 81 percent

-- West Senior High: 31 percent

-- Central High School: 30 percent

Source: Traverse City Area Public Schools

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