In 2020, Staunton Schools qualified for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) which allows schools to provide free meals to all students and eliminates meal debt for families and the school division.
A proposal by the House and Ways Committee threatens the school system’s eligibility, and would potentially cut billions in funding and affect 784 schools in Virginia, including Staunton.
When children’s basic needs are not met, they struggle in the classroom. Staunton residents are encouraged to reach out to legislators to keep school meals free for all students.
Staunton Schools Superintendent Dr. Garett Smith told WHSV last month that he does not hear about funding being cut for prison inmates’ food.
“I don’t understand why anybody who’s considering federal cuts would be targeting the working poor. We’re all in it together,” Smith said. “We’re all one community. We’re all one school division.”
Federal funding cuts would eliminate approximately 3,000 students in Staunton from qualifying for free breakfast and lunch at school every day. Families who cannot afford to pay for the meals at schools, according to Smith, would accrue meal debt with the school division.
“It’s very difficult to collect on that meal debt,” Smith said. “We’re certainly not going to hire a collection agency to go out and get it.” Then the financial debt becomes the locality’s while ineligible students are served cold, brown-bagged meals at school.
According to the Virginia PTA, 451,117 Virginia students at 784 schools are eligible for free meals. Of the schools, 40 percent or more of enrolled students live below the poverty level and participate in SNAP, TANF, income-eligible Medicaid and/or are homeless.
Ninety of Virginia‘s 131 school divisions, or 69 percent, are full CEP divisions, which means every school in the school division qualifies for CEP.
When posting on social media, residents are encouraged to use the hashtags #ProtectSchoolMeals and #CEP.
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Rebecca Barnabi
