Food service manager Lauren Moran and assistant manager Erin Mudra begin planning for free lunches for all students starting in August.

MANSFIELD — Students at Mansfield Schools could have no-cost breakfasts and lunches for the next four years, regardless of their family’s financial status.

The Mansfield City Schools Board of Education voted unanimously for the district to enroll in Community Eligibility Provision at their meeting on May 1. 

The vote allows food service manager Lauren Ellsworth to submit the required application allowing the program to begin in time for the first day of school on Aug. 23. Ellsworth said she was certain the district would be accepted into the provision, and that the Ohio Deparment of Education believed the district would qualify.

The CEP, a provision by the Ohio Department of Education, was created to help schools with large percentages of students living in poverty.

“To determine eligibility of a school for CEP,” the ODE said, the percentage of identified students to enrollment must be 40 percentage or greater.

Currently, 83 percent of Mansfield City Schools’ students qualify for free or reduced price meals, said Lauren Ellsworth, manager of food service in the district.
 
The district stated all students are currently eligible for free breakfasts at their respective schools.
 
“I can’t say this statistic would constitute poverty level – I don’t want to misinform you,” she said. “I’d imagine the income rates are comparable, but I believe the income guidelines vary between qualifying for free or reduced price meals and being identified as a family that falls below poverty level income.”
 
The free meal will follow requirements set by the state of two ounces of protein, one ounce of grains, a serving size of a fruit and vegetable, and a carton of milk.
 
“For a zero cost meal, it’s pretty decent,” Ellsworth said. “You’ll walk away full.”
 
The new provision will apply to every student in the school district, and Ellsworth believes this will help the district’s students for a handful of reasons.
 
“Even those who are paying right now, I don’t see anything but benefits coming out of it,” she said. “(Free and reduced meals) are almost a typical thing. It’s pretty well accepted and the need is there.”
 
The district requires families to fill out paperwork for a child to be on the current free breakfast and lunch program, she continued. The CEP would clear that hurdle.
 
Treasurer Robert Kuehnle said the CEP will cost the food service department about $18,000 and the district’s general fund an estimated $23,000, but the general fund’s cost would be offset if the free-lunch policy helps to attract a minimum of eight students to the district, adding that the numbers he gave would only hold true if everything held firm.
 
Ellsworth said she believed all 83 percent of the students eligible for the free or reduced meals would opt in for the new program and that would help the school qualify as a no charge for the district.
 
Ellsworth told the board she felt the program would be easily worth any cost for the district. Ellsworth also said she is anticipating much of the food service department’s cost to be recouped by an increase in the no-cost lunch participation. This could result in a federal reimbursement.
 
Vice President of the board, Renda Cline agreed.

“We do know we have a very high poverty rate,” Cline said before the vote was taken. “A lot of times, children bear the burdens of the entire family circumstances, whatever the circumstances. A lot of times, it is embarrassing for them to say they are on free lunch, or they just don’t go to lunch. I know a lot of you educators know how children perform when they are hungry. If we don’t have our basic needs met, we don’t really care about anything else for the rest of the day.

“Unless you’ve actually served in a food pantry, you don’t realize how much of a difference this will make. There are whole families struggling and they don’t have food to eat. This is huge and I think it is a wonderful thing for our district to look at. We have to start with the basics and this is huge. I applaud everyone who is working on that.”