BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL
Times-Shamrock Writer
The effects of poverty and unemployment are being seen in school cafeterias throughoutNortheast Pennsylvania.
Across the region, more students are relying on free or reduced-price lunches at school now more than ever. In the last decade, the number of students who are enrolled in the subsidized lunch program has increased 56 percent, from 36,119 to 56,304, inLackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne andWyomingcounties.
Area school officials say they see the hunger every day in children who receive those lunches. For some, it’s their only meal of the day, educators believe.
In theScrantonSchool District, which has 60 percent of its students in the lunch program, all elementary students can receive a free breakfast. In the past decade the percentage of students in the lunch program has increased 42 percent.
Children whose families with incomes up to 130 percent of the poverty level are eligible for free lunches in the federal program. Children in families whose income is between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price lunches. For this school year, a family of four with an annual income of less than $29,055 would qualify for free lunch. An income of $41,348 qualifies a family of four for reduced-price lunches..
In theBlue RidgeSchool District, which has seen enrollment in the lunch program grow 70 percent in the last decade, free breakfast is offered to every student in grades kindergarten through fifth.
The district is also looking at grants to set up and maintain a food pantry, Superintendent Robert McTiernan said.
District 2001-2010 %change
Blue Ridge 28.2-48.1 +70.5
ElkLake 25.6-40.3 +57.6
ForestCity 34.0-48.1 +41.2
Lack. Trail 31.0-36.6 +18.1
Montrose 30.0-34.5 +14.9
Mt. View 29.1-45.6 +56.6
Susquehanna 44.1-50.6 +15.0
Tunkhannock 28.4-42.1 +48.1
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