Breakfast and lunch will be free to all students at most St. Paul Public Schools cafeterias this fall, regardless of family income.

Thirty-nine of the district’s 59 schools will offer free meals under a change in federal rules that enables high-poverty schools to qualify all students for the National School Lunch Program at no cost.

In 2014-15, eight St. Paul public schools participated under the program’s community eligibility provision.

The change is expected to clear the way for more students to eat school meals. At community-eligibility schools in St. Paul last year, 85 percent of students ate school lunches, compared with a district average of 78 percent.

“When children have a full stomach and they’re ready to learn … they have better academic outcomes,” said Stacy Koppen, the district’s nutrition director.

Last year, 64 percent of the district’s preK-12 students qualified for free school meals and an additional 8 percent for reduced-price meals, based on family size and income.

Community eligibility is determined differently, based on participation in such government programs as food stamps, Head Start and homeless education. Nearly 53 percent of St. Paul Public Schools students were identified under community eligibility.

In order for the federal government to cover the entire cost of each meal, a school or district must have 62.5 percent or more of its students identified as eligible. However, federal rules allow large districts to group schools together to earn a higher reimbursement rate.

Koppen said St. Paul grouped some schools so that all 39 participating schools will have their meals fully reimbursed.

The district has six additional schools that qualify for at least partial reimbursement but will not participate in community eligibility this fall. Low-income students at schools that don’t participate still will get meal subsidies through the family income formula.

Jean Ronnei, the district’s operations director, said the child nutrition program is meant to be self-sustaining. Including schools that earn only partial reimbursements would have required an $800,000 subsidy from the district’s general fund, Ronnei said, and making free lunches available citywide would cost the district about $3.5 million.

“We are moving cautiously, but certainly getting up to 39 schools feels like we’re making good progress,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t look at it down the road.”

The district has offered free breakfast to all students since 2011 under a different reimbursement program. That’s not changing, but the 39 community-eligibility schools will bring St. Paul even more federal money for those morning meals.

A Pioneer Press analysis of last year’s enrollment figures found that about 2,660 St. Paul students whose parents earn too much to qualify for meal subsidies will be able to eat free lunches this fall because of community eligibility. Overall, nearly 80 percent of the district’s students will have access to free school lunches.

Many school districts were reluctant to use community eligibility last year. In Minnesota, only 50 of 394 qualifying schools participated.

That’s likely because school officials worried parents who knew their children could eat free wouldn’t bother to complete their meal subsidy applications. The government uses those applications as a proxy for poverty, and lower subsidy rates could mean fewer academic program dollars flowing to schools.

Ronnei said those fears, at least in St. Paul, were unfounded.

“We were very pleasantly surprised that income applications came in like they needed to,” she said.

In another way, community eligibility could be encouraging parents to complete the income-based applications.

Koppen said some parents are too proud to ask for help feeding their children. “Many times, that’s the reason we don’t get applications back from families,” she said.

But when all students get free school meals, she said, the stigma associated with the subsidies is eased.

FREE LUNCH SCHOOLS

These 39 schools will offer free lunches to all students this fall. All St. Paul Public Schools provide free breakfast.

A

AGAPE High School and American Indian Magnet

B

Battle Creek Elementary, Battle Creek Middle, Bridge View School and Bruce Vento Elementary*

C

Cherokee Heights Elementary, Como Park Elementary, Como Park Senior High and Creative Arts Secondary

D-E

Dayton’s Bluff Achievement Plus* and Eastern Heights Elementary

F

Farnsworth Aerospace Lower Campus*, Farnsworth Aerospace Upper Campus, Focus Beyond, Four Seasons A+ and Frost Lake Elementary

G

Galtier Community School and Gordon Parks High School

H

Harding Senior High*, Hamline Elementary, Hazel Park Preparatory Academy, Heights Community School, Highwood Hills Elementary and Humboldt Senior High

J/L

Jackson Elementary*, John A. Johnson Achievement Plus, Journeys Secondary School and LEAP High School

M

Maxfield Elementary* and Mississippi Creative Arts

O-P

Obama Elementary* and Phalen Lake Hmong Studies

R-S

Ramsey Middle, RiverEast Elementary and Secondary, Riverview Elementary and St. Paul Music Academy*

W

Washington Technology and Wellstone Elementary

*Also participated last year.

Qualified, but not participating

These six schools qualified for community eligibility but will not provide free meals to all students because the meals would not have been fully reimbursed.

Ben Mays**, Crossroads, Johnson Senior, Linwood Monroe Arts Plus (upper and lower campuses) and Parkway Montessori

** Ben Mays has a high poverty rate, but students share the cafeteria with Capitol Hill students, and together, the two schools do not qualify for full federal reimbursement.

Fresh produce program ends

St. Paul Public Schools are giving up on a federal program that introduces kids at low-income schools to a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, Ronnei said.

Rising food and labor costs have forced the district to discontinue the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program after six years.

The food is served as a classroom snack outside regular school meal times, and teachers provide a nutrition lesson while students eat. The aim is to get kids to try a range of healthy produce and then encourage their parents to buy it for snacks at home.

Ronnei said the program worked well for a while, but when funding fell and labor costs rose, the district had to switch to less-expensive, prepackaged foods. That meant serving more snacks, such as celery or baby carrots, that were less appealing to students, and as a result, more food was being thrown away, she said.

Thirty elementary schools participated in the program last school year, Ronnei said, but 13 ran out of grant money before the year ended.

Josh Verges can be reached at 651-228-2171. Follow him at twitter.com/ua14.