Commissioners funds free lunches for all Macon students
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The Macon County Commission decided last week in a split vote to fund a $200,000 request from the school system that will ensure all students in Macon County receive free lunch for the coming school year.
The money will cover lunch costs for Highlands School and Franklin High School, the only schools in the county where lunch isn’t free for everyone.
“We have a huge need to provide nutritious meals, to provide equal access to meals at all schools, and I feel like we’re missing out by not being able to provide FHS and Highlands students access to free meals when so many people fall through the cracks,” said Macon County Schools Nutrition Director David Lightner.
The Macon County Nutrition Department and Board of Education came before the county commission during its Aug. 13 meeting to make the funding request, which comes on the heels of rising food and supplies costs that have caused an increase in the cost of school lunch.
School nutrition departments operate financially independent of school systems and are funded completely through food sales, government reimbursements and grants. Other than capital outlay requests, they do not require any local funding.
This summer, the nutrition department announced it would increase the cost of school lunch to $4 for all paid students in grades K-12 for the coming school year, up from the previous price of $3.75 for K-4 students and $3.85 for students in grade five through 12, which had been approved by the board in June of 2022.
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“This is mostly driven by increases in labor costs and food costs,” said Lightner at the time.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reimburses school nutrition programs for each meal provided to students — both paid and free. For the 2024-25 school year, the reimbursement rate for free students is $4.54, and $0.53 for full paid students. The USDA’s intent is for school nutrition programs to serve meals to paying students at a rate as close to the free reimbursement rate as possible.
The $200,000 allotment will allow the school system to provide free lunches at both Franklin High School and Highlands School, the only two schools in the system that do not yet qualify for the Community Eligibility Provision, a non-pricing meal service option for schools in low-income areas. Those two schools alone comprise about 30% of the MCS student population.
The CEP program allows schools to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting household applications for free and reduced lunch. Instead, schools that adopt CEP are reimbursed using a formula based on the percentage of students categorically eligible for free meals based on their participation in other programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) or Medicaid benefits, as well as children who are certified for free meals without an application because they are homeless, migrant, enrolled in Head Start or in foster care.
Any district, group of schools in a district or individual school with 25% or more students participating in these programs qualifies for CEP.
Once a certain school qualifies for the CEP program, thereby allowing all students at the school to access free breakfast and lunch, that school remains in the program and can continue offering no cost meals for a five-year period, after which the school is reassessed.
With percentages of students that qualify for free and reduced meals at 50% at Franklin High School and 40% at Highlands School, “there’s still a lot of families that are borderline that just fall outside the range to be provided this,” said Lightner. “There’s a lot of families that pay for multiple students, and it is burdensome.”
Earlier this summer, the school board asked Lightner to come up with an estimate of how much it would cost to cover lunches for the school year for students at FHS and Highlands School that do not already qualify for free and reduced lunch. After grant funding for the need did not pan out, Board Member Hilary Wilkes asked the school board to make this request to the county commission.
During its most recent budget cycle, the Jackson County Commission approved a similar — though much more expensive — request from Jackson County Public Schools to cover the cost of free breakfast and lunch for the five schools in Jackson County that do not currently qualify for the CEP program. Commissioners committed to half a million dollars for the upcoming school year in order to ensure all students in Jackson County receive free breakfast and lunch.
At the Macon County Commission’s Aug. 13 meeting, both Chairman Gary Shields and Commissioner Danny Antoine immediately expressed their support to fund the request, though Antoine did say that he thought this needed to be discussed during the budget process.
“I work with a lot of families in this community where kids are going home hungry,” Antoine said. “At this point, it doesn’t really matter to me what we have to do to try to get these kids fed… if there’s a way that we can do that, I want to be in support of that.”
Lightner, Wilkes, Board of Education Chairman Jim Breedlove and Board Member Diedre Breeden all expressed their appreciation for the commission considering the funding request out of budget season and explained that during the budget process, they were still trying to get all eleven schools in the county on the CEP program. Administration and staff did not find out until after budget season that FHS and Highlands School did not make the cut.
“We know this is a big ask,” said Breedlove. “We’re sorry it wasn’t in the budget ask; we simply didn’t have the figures at the time.”
Board members also explained that they were requesting the money from the commission because, while the school system’s fund balance sits at just under $2 million, one month of operation for the school system costs around $800,000. Therefore, the school board did not feel comfortable taking the $200,000 out of an already tight fund balance.
Commissioner Paul Higdon expressed his staunch opposition to the request because it came outside the budget process.
“Worthy program, I’m sure. Free food, free whatever, but there’s a budget process and a funding protocol that you’ve got to follow,” Higdon said. “We’re running a business, y’all are running a business, based on that I can’t support a $200,000 out of budget appropriation.”
As of May of this year, Macon County had a fund balance of $48.7 million, which earned the county about $3.1 million in interest over the last year. According to County Manager Derek Roland’s budget presentation this year, even with the new high school project, the county’s fund balance will not fall below $25 million.
Commissioner John Shearl was vocal in his opposition to the request.
“We toss the word free around like it’s nothing, but nothing is free; it is costing someone somewhere,” Shearl said. “How are you decreasing the burden on a family when they don’t have kids and they can’t afford to buy groceries and medicine? Isn’t that passing the burden on to that family?”
“This is an emotional ask in my mind, because everybody in this room loves children, and they don’t want to see them go hungry,” said Shearl. “But I cannot vote based on emotions and I believe that the Macon County School system budget is much greater than Macon County as a whole. Surely to God, y’all can find $200,000 floating around to provide Franklin High School and Highlands School students if you want to provide them all free lunches.”
Both Breedlove and Lightner made clear to the commission that this was a one-time request and that the school system would continue to work to increase school lunch participation and get all eleven schools on the CEP program.
Commissioner Josh Young expressed his displeasure at the funding request coming outside of the budget season, but ultimately voted in favor, leading to a 3-2 decision with Higdon and Shearl voting against.
“We feed the jails, we feed the seniors,” Young said. “My recommendation would be to please try and pursue filling out more [free and reduced lunch] applications throughout the year.”
Breedlove told the commission that it could finance the request on a monthly basis, with the school system reporting a monthly cost to the county finance department and the county reimbursing the school nutrition department accordingly.
“We are going to do everything in our power to make our system sustainable,” said Breedlove. “I understand this is an emotional thing, but our goal is, we have to focus on the children. If it’s emotional, it’s emotional. We feel strongly about it.”
