Calypso, Lincoln and Marvine elementary schools in the Bethlehem Area School District will pilot a free lunch program next school year.
The pilot, which has been under consideration for months, will rely on a federal reimbursement program called the Community Eligibility Provision. Advocates, including local parents, clergy and members of the Lehigh Valley Democratic Socialists of America, had been pushing the school board to enroll in CEP districtwide or to consider a larger partial enrollment.
“While we were certainly hoping for more schools to be included in the pilot program so that fewer families are left contending with lunch debt, I am confident that the pilot will show the school board that this is an incredible initiative for our community that serves to benefit the working class people of Bethlehem,” DSA organizer Dominic Trabosci said in an email.
“I am hopeful that the program will open up to more schools in the future with the potential for district-wide. Whatever happens, DSA will be there to advocate for the community.”
Six Lehigh Valley school districts are enrolled in CEP as a district: Allentown, Catasauqua Area, Easton Area, Northern Lehigh, Salisbury Township and Whitehall-Coplay, according to a 2025-26 school year report from the Pennsylvania Department of Education that estimates program eligibility.
In Lehigh and Northampton counties, Southern Lehigh is the only public school district that doesn’t meet the districtwide eligibility threshold. Bangor Area, East Penn, Northampton Area, Parkland, Pen Argyl, Saucon Valley and Wilson Area are eligible for districtwide enrollment but not enrolling any schools. Nazareth Area and Northwestern Lehigh enroll at least one school in their district, according to the state report.
Although Bethlehem Area would be eligible to enroll in CEP districtwide, according to the report, discussion centered around the cost of the program amid a budget cycle in which the district faced a shortfall.
An annual report delivered by the district’s business manager and supervisor of dining services to the board at an April meeting, surfaced concerns from the district’s food service company, Metz.
Metz representatives presented two primary concerns: Parents whose children are different ages and therefore at different schools can get confused when free lunch policy differs from site to site, and that can result in fewer families filling out the annual application for free and reduced lunch at the sites where that application still is required.
Multiple board members expressed at that meeting and in subsequent discussions that those potential equity issues might be less important than figuring out if BASD can afford to enroll districtwide in a program that does not guarantee an 100% federal reimbursement rate.
BASD Chief Financial Officer Harry Aristakesian said during the board’s public meeting discussions in April that the district was facing a budget deficit of $8 million. School districts are required to pass balanced budgets, so BASD had to work to close that deficit before passing its proposed 2026-27 budget, will be up for final approval in June. Aristakesian has repeatedly expressed frustration that the district is under financial pressure from external forces it cannot control, such as the rising cost of charter school tuition.