“I’m proud of Massachusetts. We’re one of eight states that did this for kids,” said Food Services Director Rachel Kania upon the signing by Gov. Maura Healey of universal free school meals on Aug. 10 as part of the $56 billion state budget for fiscal year 2024.
Massachusetts has now joined California, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont to continue offering students free breakfast and lunch, which Senate President Karen Spilka said will save families $1,200 per child per year.
“We were waiting for that to be passed through the House and the Senate,” Kania said. She said Westfield schools had no idea if the program would become a permanent part of the budget, but now “it’s permanent and written into law.”
Kania said she was one of three food services directors invited to speak at the Statehouse on May 15 to state representatives and to representatives from the Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on behalf of the bill.
She said it was her first time speaking to the Legislature.
“It was definitely an experience. It was great; I was really excited they gave us the floor to talk about what food services had become. They didn’t know we worked with local farms and baked our own bread,” Kania said.
The legislators also toured a couple of schools in another district, as “a lot of them were skeptical.”
Kania said the program “will take a huge burden off families.” Besides the cost savings, it will take away the stigma from free and reduced lunches, which she said keeps some kids from participating.
“Everybody is on the same playing field, and has the same opportunity to eat breakfast and lunch for free. This will make a huge difference in how families view school lunches. We’re really excited about that,” she said.
Kania explained that since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, state and federal funds have paid for free meals on a year-to-year basis. Before that, families that did not meet the requirements for free or reduced lunches had to pay for them, and the schools often had to track down payments.
“We had a lot of debt; a lot of people that couldn’t pay their bills. What are you going to do? Every kid has to eat,” said Kania. She said the cafeterias never turned anyone away.
With the free lunches in place during the COVID-19 state of emergency, Kania said her department was able to wipe all of the debt clean at the start of the school year. Now, with the permanent universal meals, the debt won’t return.
“Families don’t have to worry about paying these big bills they can’t pay,” she said.
Kania said the bill signed by Healey also solidifies financial security for the program.
“We don’t have to go back to relying on revenues from children and families purchasing lunches,” she said, although the program does still depend on participation levels.
Reimbursement is based on how many children are served meals — not on the student population. The USDA hasn’t released the reimbursement rate yet, which is usually done right before school starts. For the 2022-23 school year, which included free meals to students, the rates were $4.46 for lunch and $2.26 for breakfast per student.
“If we keep participation high, then we remain healthy. The more kids that participate, the more money we make,” Kania said. “For us, that will mean financial security. We can dive into more things that we enjoy in Westfield, like working with local farms to procure fresh fruits and vegetables. We’re really excited about that, and the possibility of really pushing our program much more farm-to-school, which comes with a big price tag compared to getting canned or frozen food from the USDA at a discount.”
This year the department will be working with Czajkowski Farm in Hadley and Mountain Orchard Farms in Granville.
Kania said the revenue will also help her to renovate the rest of the kitchens in the schools. She said there are 10 kitchens that were all in need of renovation, as the majority were original to when their school was built. She said they have been through half of them.
“These funds will allow us to do the renovations in the schools without taking any money from the school budget or the city budget. That’s what’s great about it,” Kania said.
As an example, she said Westfield Technical Academy had old, outdated and broken seating. Now, with the extra funds, school officials have with representatives from a furniture company, and will be replacing all of the furniture in the cafeteria at WTA to accommodate the rising number of students. The cost will be over $100,000, with “not a dime” from the school or city budget.
Kania said with the addition of funds for extra staff, they are now hiring for all positions, for substitutes and part-time workers. People who are interested in any of the positions may contact the Food Services office in Suite B10 at City Hall, 59 Court St., Westfield, or telephone 413-572-6493.
Kania called the free universal school meals “a definite victory for Massachusetts kids. I’m so excited to take that burden off of families here in Westfield and in Massachusetts,” she said.
https://www.thereminder.com/localnews/westfield/westfield-school-nutrition-director-happy-with-fre/