Policy Team

Week One Update

The research for Federal, State, and Indiana school lunch policies is as follows. Most of our group research is found online through several government websites.

We learned and observed a number of things.

We’ve learned as a group that the parent/s have to apply via online or through paper application for free or reduced lunches. Several financial requirements are to be met to receive these services. Every family member’s income in the house has to be noted in the application.

So, the state takes the amount of the whole household to see if the parent/s of the child(children) is accepted or denied for these services. Upon further research we noticed that there is a separate application for “Free Milk”. All requirements for this service are the same as the lunches.

If a child gets denied for these services, the parent can contact the school and get a hearing to provide the documentation that they have, for review of their application. At this time the child will receive free/reduced lunches until they get reevaluated.  

We have also looked into Federal laws and local laws that influence the Lunch Programs.

Federal laws are rather vague. Going through these laws are actually very hard as they are put into subcategories and use language that many people actually go to school to learn how to properly read. Essentially the federal programs come down to the Anti-Lunch Shaming act whose main goal is to Prohibit schools from stigmatizing children with hand stamps, wristbands or other public means. Prevent schools from forcing children to perform chores in order to receive a meal. Stop lunch workers from disposing of a meal after it’s been served to a child. Require all communications regarding lunch bills be directed to parents or guardians instead of children. Many of these laws are however not followed at the state level, and schools are still lunch shaming children. Even if the laws are passed from Federal all the way down to the districts, it still does  not fix the issue of shaming itself as most school will give students a different lunch from that of paying students, singling out the student.

On a local level, we have found that the Lake County School District is participating in the Community Eligibility Provision. This program is enacted when a majority of the students are low-income. The school offers free lunch to all students without the need for the household to fill out applications for the free/reduced lunch program. This eliminates lunch shaming and helps the cafeteria become a safe space for students. Currently, Hammond schools and East Chicago schools are part of this program.