In many Butler County school districts, the amount of students that participate in the Free and Reduced Lunch program has nearly doubled.

In Middletown, the percentage of students using the FRL program has increased from 41.74 percent a decade ago to 74 percent this year. The district also increased by 3.8 percent from last year.

During the 2002-03 school year, Lakota schools had only 8.44 percent of students participating in the FRL program. Now that percentage has more than doubled to 18.38 percent.

In the same amount of time, Fairfield’s participation has tripled, from 10.54 percent to 32.57 percent.

However, the increase may in part be due to the advancement of technology. In the past, students who participated in the FRL program were given a card which they presented to the cashier instead of purchasing their food. This could create embarrassment or even a social barrier between students who did or did not have to participate in the program.

Now that students are simply required to input a number on a keypad, which identifies that student to the cashier, they don’t have to worry if their classmates know if they participate in the Free and Reduced Lunch program. In most cases, the cashiers aren’t even informed of who uses the program.

The purpose of the Free and Reduced Lunch program is to make sure that students are healthy enough to learn and progress. According to a report by the Center on Poverty and Hunger, hungry children had poorer health overall, including “elevated occurrence of health problems such as stomachaches, headaches, colds, ear infections, and fatigue.” The study reported that poorer health also caused “impaired cognitive functioning and diminished capacity to learn, lower test scores and poorer overall school achievement.” 

Source: Middletown Journal