Bethlehem Area School Board members expressed a willingness to pilot a universal free lunch program at a select number of district schools during a Monday night committee discussion, but also said more data is needed to assess the potential financial impact.<\/p>\n
District residents and organizers from the Lehigh Valley DSA have spent months advocating for a universal free lunch program<\/a>. Multiple board members referred to that advocacy, in particular parent testimony delivered at the board\u2019s March meeting, as they considered an annual report delivered by the district\u2019s business manager and supervisor of dining services<\/a>.<\/p>\n Implementing universal free lunch would mean changing how the district handles federal reimbursement for meals, and the district\u2019s chief financial officer has repeatedly warned that such a change could make it more difficult to close a projected budget deficit.<\/p>\n Should Bethlehem Area schools fund universal free lunch? How budget math is complicating the debate<\/a><\/p>\n The core of the debate is whether it would be beneficial to take advantage of a federal reimbursement mechanism called the Community Eligibility Provision<\/a>. Enrolling in that program, either districtwide or at selected schools, would mean families no longer need to fill out annual applications for the National School Lunch Program<\/a> (known colloquially as \u201cfree and reduced lunch\u201d).<\/p>\n Free breakfast already is available to all Bethlehem Area students through a state program<\/a>. While enrolling in CEP would also make lunch free for all students, it would not be free for the district.<\/p>\n When districts enroll in CEP, the federal government calculates how many students qualify for meals that are reimbursed at 100% and how many students qualify for meals that are reimbursed at a lower level.<\/p>\n The wide socioeconomic spread of Bethlehem Area families means that the district would not qualify for 100% federal reimbursement if it enrolled in CEP districtwide.<\/p>\n The business office and dining services calculated that the district would qualify to have 70% of meals served reimbursed at 100% (the federal government sets a value of $4.62 per meal), while the other 30% of meals served would be reimbursed at only 46 cents per meal.<\/p>\n That would leave the district on the hook to cover the gap. Chief Financial Officer Harry Aristakesian said Monday that the district is facing a budget deficit of $8 million<\/a> \u2014 one it is obligated to close before next month\u2019s passage of a proposed final budget for public review \u2014 and he continues to believe that enrolling in CEP districtwide is not financially feasible.<\/p>\n Selecting pilot schools<\/p>\n Business Manager Frank Pearn Jr. and Dining Services Supervisor Ashley Kelly presented board members with a range of options for partial CEP enrollment, which would potentially allow the district to only enroll schools at which 100% of meals served would be fully reimbursed.<\/p>\n Representatives from Metz, the district\u2019s food service company, told the board that partial CEP enrollment comes with potential downsides. Metz Assistant Vice President Andrew Chandler said the company serves 80-plus districts in Pennsylvania, and its sister company serves another 70 in New Jersey, and that nearly all its schools that enroll in CEP do so districtwide.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In Lehigh and Northampton counties, Southern Lehigh is the only public school district that doesn\u2019t meet the districtwide eligibility threshold, according to a 2025-26 school year report from the Pennsylvania Department of Education that estimates program eligibility<\/a>.<\/p>\n Six Lehigh Valley school districts are enrolled in CEP as a district: Allentown, Catasauqua Area, Easton Area, Northern Lehigh, Salisbury Township and Whitehall-Coplay.<\/p>\n Nazareth Area and Northwestern Lehigh enroll at least one school in their district, according to the state report.<\/p>\n Enrolling some schools and not others in universal free lunch risks stigmatizing entire schools, Chandler said.<\/p>\n Pearn echoed those arguments, saying, \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be shaming individuals, we\u2019d be shaming schools.\u201d<\/p>\n But board members pushed back on that argument. Board President Michael Faccinetto said the district\u2019s community schools already receive additional resources designed to meet the needs of families and universal free lunch could become another of those resources.<\/p>\n Business office and dining services projections show nine schools would potentially qualify for 100% federal reimbursement: Lincoln, Marvine, Freemansburg, Thomas Jefferson, William Penn, Donegan and Fountain Hill elementaries, plus Broughal and Northeast middle schools.<\/p>\n Clearview Elementary School\u2019s data shows it would potentially qualify for 99.26% federal reimbursement. Pearn said Clearview has historically seen income levels that would qualify it for 100% federal reimbursement.<\/p>\n As discussion turned to which schools might participate in a universal free lunch pilot, board members said they need more data to assess what groupings might make the most sense and how many schools the pilot should include.<\/p>\n An idea to include only one or two schools did not win much support, with more board members saying they\u2019re open to a larger pilot, potentially of all the schools that would qualify for 100% federal reimbursement or of all the district\u2019s Title I schools.<\/p>\n Federal funding impacts<\/p>\n Title I is a U.S. Department of Education budget program<\/a> that allocates funding to schools based in part on the number of families that fall below federal poverty levels. It is the most well-known and the largest of federal programs that support public schools.<\/p>\n BASD\u2019s budget projections<\/a> assume Title I funding will largely remain stable relative to recent years, which would place the district in line for nearly $4.6 million. That\u2019s a little over 1% of the district\u2019s total budget.<\/p>\n Bethlehem Area Superintendent Jack Silva told The Morning Call that Title I has historically been seen as the most stable of federal funding streams, but added that doubts are rising among school leaders as to whether it will remain protected as the federal government continues to express support for moving education funding from the U.S. Department of Education to the states.<\/p>\n The stability of Title I funding was a large part of the discussion regarding universal free lunch because federal funding streams are connected. Both Title I and the free and reduced lunch program use eligibility for other federal assistance programs to help determine how much federal funding a school can get.<\/p>\n The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program<\/a> is an important eligibility metric for those other federal funding programs. Families that are enrolled in SNAP automatically qualify for free and reduced lunch and don\u2019t have to fill out the annual application.<\/p>\n Not all families that are eligible for SNAP enroll, and there are other ways to qualify for free or reduced lunch, including Medicaid enrollment and Head Start participation. Currently 53% of Bethlehem Area families qualify for free lunch, with another 5% qualifying for reduced-price lunch, leaving 42% of students in the paid lunch category.<\/p>\n Annual free and reduced lunch applications help the district determine which of its families fall below or slightly above federal poverty levels, which is data it needs to ensure it is not shortchanged when applying for Title I funds.<\/p>\n If the district enrolls in CEP and no longer requires families to fill out those annual free and reduced lunch applications, it would need a different way to gather income data.<\/p>\n Further complicating the situation are cuts to SNAP. Currently, 4,000 of Bethlehem Area\u2019s 12,500 students qualify for SNAP, but the federal budget act passed in July<\/a> included eligibility restrictions that have already reduced the number of district students enrolled in the food assistance program, Pearn said.<\/p>\n