photoAnn Bloom

As a parent, you will receive many forms, pieces of paper, permission slips, art work and so forth from your child’s teacher and the school. Some of those papers you will find months later, rumpled and out of date because they have been hanging out at the bottom of your child’s backpack. Those forms will probably be tossed in the trash. Some artwork will make its way to the refrigerator. The permission slips and the papers requiring your signature will be attended to then and there.

However, there is one document you will receive that needs a second or even third look. It concerns whether your child qualifies for a discount on the price of the National School Lunch and Breakfast meal at school. Some of you may assume your child does not qualify, so why bother to take the time to fill out the form? Other parents, who may or may not qualify, will toss the form because they feel their financial situation is none of the government’s business. These are valid points. Here are a few facts that you may not know about the meal program that may influence your decision to complete the form.

There are many benefits to filling out the form, and even if you don’t qualify for the program it is still important to complete the document.

The form is entirely confidential; you can even complete it online. No one outside of the school nutrition staff ever knows if you qualify to participate in the school meal program. If you do qualify, there is no requirement to participate simply because you qualify.

All children may participate in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs at school. If your family qualifies for the meal price discount your child will receive the same nutritious lunch as a student paying full price. The school receives a monetary reimbursement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for every meal it serves, so there is never any out of pocket expense for your family if you qualify for the full-price discount, and only a small charge for a reduced-price meal. The federal income guideline has set the poverty level at a little over $24,000 per year. So, for example, to qualify for a free school meal, annual income for a family of four cannot exceed $31,590 (130 percent of federal poverty level). To receive a reduced lunch, the qualifying income is approximately $44,440 (185 percent of poverty level). This is based on gross income (before taxes). Some schools in Oregon also participate in the universal breakfast program, where every child is offered breakfast before school starts, regardless of income level.

In addition, there are services that your child will not benefit from if there are not enough qualified families at your school. For example, the OSU Extension Service provides nutrition education to students in Wallowa County if a school has 50 percent or more of its students qualify for the meal program. If your child is not receiving nutrition education from an OSU Extension Service staff person, it is because your school doesn’t meet the 50 percent standard. The 50 percent figure is a requirement of the USDA, which funds the Extension Service nutrition education program. Call your school to find out whether it qualifies. Also, if you are receiving unemployment benefits, you may qualify for participation in the meal program.

Another benefit to receiving nutrition education at school is that your child will have a strong knowledge base of the components of a healthy diet, the importance of physical activity and they will be exposed to foods they may not otherwise try. Nutrition education will help ensure your child develops a lifetime of healthy habits, which can go a long way toward preventing chronic diseases in adulthood and certain forms of cancer.

If pride is keeping you from completing this form, consider this: should pride stand in the way of making sure your child has a nutritious meal at school? The government asks you to complete a form for a driver’s license, a social security card, a passport and an application for college. Why should your child’s nutrition be any different? Or that of their friends, who may be able to receive a lunch at a discount if they qualify? According to recent research on the subject, children who are well-nourished, who arrive to class rested and ready to learn, do much better on tests, do better in school in general and are much better behaved than children who are not nourished and rested. Finally, remember the form and its information is entirely confidential.

I encourage you to complete this very important form and return it to your child’s school — don’t let it hang out at the bottom of that backpack.

Ann Bloom is Education Program Assistant for the OSU Extension Service in Enterprise.