Saranac Lake School Board members Tori Thurston, left, and Joe Henderson traveled to Albany on Monday, Jan. 9 to advocate for the state legislature to budget for money to feed every student two meals a day. (Provided photo — Tracy Edwards)

SARANAC LAKE — While members of the Saranac Lake school board are waiting for the state and federal governments to act on requests to expand free school lunches for their students, they aren’t holding their breath. And they’re taking limited actions to feed more students on the local level.

On Wednesday, board members voted to not raise school meal prices from their current rates. They also discussed their expanded school lunch program, which they may extend into next year, and sent a formal request to the New York State School Boards Association, asking it to lobby the state for universal free school lunches in the coming year.

The federal government funded universal free school meals during the coronavirus pandemic, but when the public health emergency ended and the money stopped rolling in, New York went back to its normal system, despite requests from school districts and advocacy groups around the state.

The state Senate and Assembly proposed $280 million for universal free school meals, but Gov. Kathy Hochul opposed this and it was left out of the final state budget.

“The governor is not budging,” Saranac Lake school board member Tori Thurston said.

Fellow board member Joe Henderson said he doesn’t know why.

“It’s funny seeing that our government seemed fine doing this during COVID, but not now,” he said Wednesday.

California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont offer universal free lunches in their public schools.

Hochul’s budget included $134.6 million for expanded free school lunches, but Thurston said this feeds less than half of the 700,000 students who lost access to free meals when the COVID-19 funding ended. And Saranac Lake will not qualify for it.

Districts need 40% or more of their student population to be directly certified for free and reduced lunches through state or federal programs. SLCSD is at 34.5%. But Thurston said there are other, more efficient, poverty indexes. Many people are proud and don’t want to take a handout, so they don’t register for these programs.

Henderson said this is like being punished for not being poor enough.

Thurston said the state guidelines of property wealth adversely affect rural districts that are “property rich” but still have poverty, like Saranac Lake.

“We have million-dollar homes. Most of our students don’t live in those million-dollar homes,” she said. “A lot of our parents take care of those million-dollar homes.”

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Universal free school meals

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On Wednesday, Thurston introduced a resolution for the district to request that NYSSBA advocate for New York to provide free meals for all students. She said because NYSSBA is a stronger lobbying body, it gives them the best chance they have to get things changed on a state level. This resolution passed unanimously.

The deadline for submitting potential legislative priorities for NYSSBA is on July 14. Thurston plans to attend an annual NYSSBA meeting to set legislative priorities in October and is working on bringing in more representation from North Country districts.

She said the governor is “kicking the can” to the federal government to fund this, but the federal wheels turn slowly.

Thurston said there is some movement at the federal level to drop the qualifying threshold to 30% or lower, but there is “significant backlash” to this.

“As much as there is movement on supporting dropping the set number, there is as much movement blocking it completely,” Thurston said. “The number of people in the federal government, on both sides, that are fighting to prevent schools from feeding kids, I just don’t understand.”

In June, the Republican Study Committee — including North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, and most GOP House members — released its recommended 2024 budget, calling for the government to eliminate the Community Eligibility Provision from the School Lunch Program, saying CEP is not focused enough and alleging that the program has issues with fraud. CEP allows districts with high poverty rates to provide free meals to all students, not just those who are income-eligible.

“The RSC Budget would limit spending in the program to truly needy households,” the document reads.

Thurston and Henderson say this goes against the research.

“There is overwhelming research showing having free breakfast and lunch at school, not based on need, is one of the best things we can do to increase the benefits of education,” Thurston said on Thursday. “I have yet to find anything else dollar-wise that would affect every kid in the state, let alone in the country ,and get the same bang for the buck.”

Henderson feels this opposition to universal free school lunches stems from an ideological belief that people should have to work for things.

“We don’t say this about anything else in a public school,” Henderson said.

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Maintaining meal prices

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Thurston said there’s not a lot of wiggle room for setting local school meal prices with the federal guidelines.

Saranac Lake students will continue to pay $1.65 for breakfast and $2.85 for lunch. Adults will continue to pay $3.50 plus tax for breakfast and $4.90 plus tax for lunch.

Henderson voted against this motion, but it still passed with a majority of votes. He said his vote was largely symbolic.

“I just don’t think that we should be charging for school lunches,” Henderson said on Thursday. “It’s more of a symbolic vote than anything. I just can’t continue to vote for charging families for food at school.”

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1,360 free meals since January

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While they wait on the state and federal governments, Saranac Lake school board members are also taking action on a local level, trying to expand the number of students who get free meals in their own district.

In January, the school board voted to expand free school lunches to more students through a test-run program that added an additional tier for families above the federal free-and-reduced-lunch threshold, but below the ALICE line. ALICE is a metric used by the international nonprofit organization United Way which stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.” Basically, a working family who is above the federal poverty line but who still struggles to get by and pay for all the necessities of life.

Saranac Lake Central School District Superintendent Diane Fox said since the district expanded its free lunch program in January to include ALICE households, an additional 23 students are getting free meals: nine in elementary school (six at Petrova and three at Bloomingdale), six in middle school and eight in high school. Between January and June, this resulted in an extra 513 free breakfasts and 847 extra free lunches at a total extra cost of $3,255.

This is much less than the $75,000 cost board members had anticipated.

Henderson asked what the total cost of the school lunch program will be next year, but it is too early to tell. The school’s financial year just ended, but after an audit in August, board members said they would look into whether they will extend the program into next year.

“It doesn’t solve our state problem. It doesn’t solve our federal problem, as far as them coming to the plate and doing what they need to do,” Thurston said on Thursday. “But it does get more of our students covered.”

Thurston said there is a good chance they will renew the program. But in the end, it comes down to money. The test run used American Rescue Plan money from the coronavirus pandemic.

Thurston said state Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateugay Lake, has tried to get Hochul to use ALICE guidelines for free school meals, like Saranac Lake has done.

And the board is continuing to lobby for universal free lunches. Even if this is expensive, Thurston said it would be worth it.

“It seems like small things but it’s one of the few things that would affect every kid in our district,” Thurston said.

She said research shows universal free lunches are raise students’ classroom attention and test scores, lower disciplinary and mental health issues, and overall make kids feel better. Who hasn’t gotten “hangry” before, she asked.

“I just don’t think that kids should be hungry at school,” Thurston said in April. “I think it affects your learning too much. And if anybody doubts that, don’t have breakfast or lunch and try to get through your workday.”