HOUSTON — Thirty-three Houston ISD schools are losing automatic eligibility for a federally funded free meal program. Starting next school year, families at those 33 campuses will need to apply for free or reduced-price meals based on household income.
The remaining 200-plus HISD campuses will still meet eligibility for automatic free meals and continue unaffected. Schools qualify for the automatic program in part based on the number of students receiving SNAP benefits.
“Especially in high school, kids don’t want to say I’m the poor kid I want free lunch so it’s much better when they’re sort of universal free lunch,” said Bob Sandborn, CEO of a local nonprofit. He added, “Lamar High School, Bel Air High School, you just need to go to those schools to understand that there are a lot of kids coming from all over the area going to the schools because they feel like they’re going to get a better education. But that doesn’t mean they can afford to pay for a school lunch.”
Meghan Maroney of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said in a podcast interview, “How many people are struggling to get by and still not eligible for free school meals that are just on the cusp of eligibility. When families have maybe a person in their household is without legal status or is concerned about their legal status they might just decide to forgo SNAP benefits for the whole household.”
The new eligibility requirements for free school meals go into effect next school year.