Feds to Pick Up the Tab
By Dan Murphy
Yonkers Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Edwin Quezada announced earlier this month that all YPS students will be eligible for free breakfast and lunch in their schools starting this September. Quezada made the announcement at a Board of Education meeting July 11 and explained that YPS had received a designation from the federal government to receive reimbursements for meals regardless of income of the family, and regardless of whether the parents fill out the appropriate forms.
“That is a big accomplishment for our community,” he said. “We all believe in the importance of eating a good breakfast and lunch, and how it will improve not only the academic lives of our children, but the social and emotional experience for our students. We just want all of our children and all of our families to feel that we are providing all of the services to our students.”
Quezada explained that if the school district “does everything correctly” in filling out the documents needed, it will receive a Community Eligibility Provision designation from the U.S. Department of Education. That will mean YPS will not have to collect – or attempt to collect – the daily contribution that parents were supposed to pay for their students to eat a school-provided breakfast and lunch.
Collecting those fees had become a problem for YPS, which had accumulated an unpaid tab of $1.5 million in unpaid breakfast and lunch fees over the past two school years. Most of that uncollected debt will remain on the books as unpaid. The Journal News reported that “on July 11, the Board of Education had to transfer $282,156 to cover unpaid meals for part of the 2017-18 school year that ended June 30.”
Most of the uncollected and unpaid breakfast and lunch fees could have been avoided if parents had filled out the paperwork, because their children were eligible for a free breakfast and lunch based on their income. But because they had not filled out the paperwork, they were charged $20 per week for 10 meals (five breakfasts and five lunches). Any student could receive a breakfast or lunch if they provided $3 per day in the elementary schools or $4.50 per day in the secondary schools.
Last year, the issue of unpaid fees for breakfast and lunch came to a head when the Yonkers City Council highlighted the issue during a budget hearing with Quezada, during which he explained that there is no punishment, or denial of breakfast or lunch, if a student’s parents have not paid the reimbursement. A notation is made if a student doesn’t have the money for the day (sometimes as low as 25 cents per meal if they qualify), but everyone is given a meal who wants one.
“We will not allow any child to go hungry – that is not going to happen,” said Quezada. “We will protect them and take care of them.”
Board of Education President the Rev. Steve Lopez added: “If you deny them lunch, they won’t eat for the whole day. They have families with abuse or substance abuse, and this is the only meal they will ever see.”
Last year, some councilmembers suggested that students whose parents had not paid the fees for their children’s breakfast and lunch receive a “reduced-cost lunch” of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, until their debt is paid. That suggestion was rejected by Quezada and other councilmembers.
Quezada said the district would not enact or enforce a cheap lunch option for a variety of reasons – even though the current YPS policy states that students whose parents are not paying the reimbursement should get a PBJ sandwich. The district is simply not enforcing the policy.
“The policy states that they should get a PBJ sandwich, but we are not doing that,” said Quezada.
Councilwoman Corazon Pineda-Isaac commented: “Seventy-nine percent of our children are economically disadvantaged. Don’t give them an inferior lunch, but continue to feed these children and support them.”
Now that the issue is resolved and all YPS students are now eligible for a free breakfast and lunch, it is estimated that the school district will save $800,000 per year. How and if that money can be used in other areas has yet to be determined, but the $282,156 spent by the district earlier this year to cover some of the debt is a dollar amount that could be used for other educational purposes.
Another option for students that is used in other school districts are “breakfast on the go” stands, which provide students will a quick meal or healthy snack that they can bring into class.
