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Paradise ISD to pay more than $14K for ‘free lunch’


FEDS PICK UP TAB FOR SOME – Alvord cafeteria worker Norma Cantrell hands food to a parent in March. Messenger Photo by Mack Thweatt

A recent stipulation to the Texas Department of Agriculture’s free and reduced lunch program has left one Wise County school district dipping into its general fund to pay off more than $14,000 worth of meals.

After receiving guidance in August that stated all school districts in Texas could feed students at no cost under the free and reduced lunch program until Dec. 31, Paradise ISD gave out free meals from Sept. 7 through Oct. 9.

“All of our students ate for free with the understanding we’d get reimbursed from the federal government,” Uttley said.

The understanding stemmed from an Aug. 31. U.S. Department of Agriculture press release where U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said the USDA would extend summer meal programs through December.

“The flexibilities allow summer meal program operators to continue serving free meals to all children into the fall months,” the USDA press release says. “This unprecedented move will help ensure – no matter what the situation is on-the-ground – children have access to nutritious food as the country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

It appears the “all children into the fall months” portion of the statement required an asterisk.

A technicality that surfaced after digging deeper into the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) guidance revealed a snag in September, according to Shelly Laaser, the child nutrition director for Decatur, Bridgeport, Chico, Alvord, Paradise and Boyd ISDs.

“Last Tuesday, we found out, Houston there’s a problem,” Laaser said. “They were not going to reimburse those meals for the month of September. We were hoping and thinking that perhaps they would abide by the guidance they previously gave and reimburse those meals for September. However, they’ve been denied.”

Now Paradise is on the hook for thousands of dollars worth of meals the district did not expect to pay for.

TDA has required districts to submit a waiver to participate in the program. If a district has a campus with more than 50 percent of its students eligible to participate in the program, it can give out free meals to the entire district.

For a four-person household to be eligible, they must make under $48,470 a year.

Paradise ISD’s campus with the most students qualified, Paradise elementary, fell at 36 percent, requiring the district to cover the cost of the meals they’ve served for free the last two months. Students who are already on the free and reduced lunch program can still get meals for free or reduced rates, but the rest of the students will have to pay for meals going forward.

“We’re roughly down about $14,000 to $16,000,” Uttley said. “We’re trying to navigate those waters as quickly and accurately as we can. We just missed this one.”

Alvord ISD was nearly on the hook, too, with its eligibility for free and reduced meals at its elementary school campus initially at 45.67 percent.

“The initial understanding was this was available to all kids, all students,” Superintendent Randy Brown said. “Then we found out that you have to have at least one campus with 50 percent eligible. That was not the understanding that I had.”

After learning about the qualification bar, and seeing how close the district was, Brown said his staff hit the phones, contacting parents who might be eligible to see if they would apply.

Now Brown said the elementary school is at more than 51 percent eligible.

“Jamie Mitchell took the lead, got on the phone and reached out to parents that might be able to qualify and encouraged them to apply,” Brown said. “Where we’re at right now is we have over 50 percent that have qualified. TDA has confirmed we have over 50 percent. So we feel like the waiver to continue to provide free meals to our kids would be approved. We have not been approved yet.”

Decatur, Bridgeport, Boyd, Chico and Slidell were not affected by the 50 percent rule.

Laaser encouraged parents that might be eligible to apply to be in the free and reduced lunch program to do so.

Brown said even if they don’t need it, it benefits the district in terms of funding and eligibility for grants.

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