Hot lunch now in elementary schools

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Children at Baldwin’s elementary schools have been eating a lunch that’s been prepared for them outside of school everyday for decades. But for the first time, when elementary school students returned to school on Sept. 3, a hot lunch offer was now on the table.

After months of discussion, the Board of Education approved a contract over the summer with Preferred Meals, a foodservice provider with a location in Brooklyn. Every morning, meals are delivered to each elementary school where they are stored and later reheated for students. The meals are prepared in Brooklyn and frozen before delivery.

Why the reason for the change?

James Scannell, who retired as superintendent last week, said that Baldwin’s elementary schools were built at time when “everyone went home for lunch. Now more people eat at school.

“We’ve seem to come to a time where this is an appropriate service to provide to our students and their families,” he added. “There are more kids who are in need of this kind of service. In today’s busy household it’s just appropriate to have this as an option.”

The other major reason a hot lunch program has gone into effect, Scannell added, is so the district can more accurately display its economic need to the state. He explained that one way the state figures out a district’s need, and therefore the amount of aid it receives, is by looking at the number of students who participate in a federally approved free or reduced lunch program. If a district is identified as having more need it will potentially receive more state aid.

“Because of this tradition we have here in Baldwin with not offering any hot lunch in our elementary schools,” he said, “we show zero students on free or reduced lunch, so it looks like we have no economic need as far as that’s concerned.

“Now we can be more accurately gauged,” he added. The district should see an increase in aid in about two to three years, Scannell said.

In order to qualify for free or reduced lunch, families must complete an application; eligibility is determined by household income. As of last week, 315 elementary students qualified for free lunch while 59 elementary students qualified for reduced lunch, Scannell said.

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