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Enlarge By Kelly Wilkinson, The Indianapolis Star Kindergartners Ashlie Cleyman, 6, left, and Alleyah Hickman, 6, eat lunch Monday at school. All the kids at Daniel Webster School 46 in Indianapolis get free lunches. School systems nationwide are trimming lunch menus, buying more food in bulk and delaying purchases of kitchen equipment to offset the costs of serving free or reduced-price lunches to millions of newly eligible students from cash-strapped families. Record enrollment in subsidized meal programs has school systems large and small stretching already paper-thin budgets to ensure that students are well-fed and ready to learn. No region seems immune. BACKGROUND: More students on free lunch programs In New York City, which has the nation's largest school system, 73% of students received free or discount lunches this year, up from 71% in 2007-2008. In Chicago, participation jumped to 84.3% from 82% in 2007-2008 and 75% the year before. Dade County, Fla., schools saw a 3.8% jump, to 66.7%. Districts get a federal reimbursement for each lunch they serve, but that reimbursement typically comes up 15 to 50 cents short for every meal, depending on whether state and local governments kick in additional money, according to the School Nutrition Association, which represents school lunch officials. Covering the shortfall Twenty-two states and some cities, such as Bridgeport, Conn., provide additional meal subsidies to schools, but most districts' food departments have to cover the balance. Nationwide, that amounts to millions of dollars a day that schools pay from their own budgets to augment federal subsidies, the association says. The Mesa, Ariz., school district, near Phoenix, doesn't get any money from the state to help feed its kids, though 3,000 more students qualified for free and discounted meals this academic year. To pay for the increase, the district manages food "down to the last student," says Loretta Zullo, director of food and nutrition. Instead of having all the food ready when lunch starts, elementary schools "cook while the kids are coming through the line, so you don't end up with three pans of pizza or burritos left," she says. The 33-cent muffin on a fruit and yogurt breakfast plate was popular, "but we couldn't afford it," Zullo says, so it was dropped in favor of a whole-grain cracker that costs only 11 cents. Indianapolis public schools cut expenses by purchasing supplies "by the truckload" and storing the food at a central facility that prepares meals for delivery to individual schools, says Velda Hamman, director of food services. Menu choices are limited to save money, even at the high schools, she adds. "We don't do junk food." In Indianapolis, 83.6% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches this year, up slightly from previous years. At 51 of its 72 schools, all students eat for free because such a high percentage qualify on the basis of family income that the district waives the fee for everyone, as permitted by federal law. In Jackson, Miss., the school system pays about 50 cents on top of the federal subsidy for each of the 25,500 lunches it serves daily, says food services director Mary Hill. "We have to be very creative to keep up," she adds, noting that she has put off kitchen equipment purchases. To qualify for a free school lunch, a family of four can have an income of no more than $27,560 per year under the 2008-2009 federal guidelines. For a reduced-price lunch, the limit is $39,220. Poor economy spurs demand School officials blame the economy for the rising need. In Seattle, Tom Ogg, the assistant director of nutrition services, says, "There's been a steadier stream of families applying this year than in years past" for free and subsidized meals. Parents are supposed to pay 30 cents for a reduced-price breakfast and 40 cents for reduced-price lunch. But Washington state and the district cover the co-pay for all breakfasts and for lunches for the youngest kids, in kindergarten through third grade, to ensure they get two good meals a day. Bad as things are, some districts expect the worst is yet to come. The Los Angeles Unified School District, second-largest in the country, saw its free and reduced-price program expand by 8,800 students over the past school year, covering 78% of its student body. As many as 20,000 more are expected for next year, says Manish Singh of the food service department. That's because families receiving food stamps or certain other types of government assistance have been made automatically eligible for subsidized lunches by the federal government. Singh says officials hear about a lot of families in which one or both parents have lost jobs. "I've had a couple of families who were in the $110,000 to $120,000 bracket and dad lost his job and now they're $30,000 and suddenly the parents are keen to qualify," says Singh. He says he saw one family in which the father had lost his job but the mom said, " 'My husband doesn't want to apply for unemployment benefits — he wants to look for a job.' " The district worked out a deal where the father provided documentation showing he'd been laid off, so the children could get free lunches. "You have to handle it delicately," Singh says. "The family's already going through a tough time." Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, expects the need will continue to grow. "We're going to see more layoffs, more unemployment," he says. "So you're going to continue to see a significant number of people who will become eligible for the first time." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. 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