SAND SPRINGS, Okla. — Sand Springs Public Schools is the latest school district to qualify for federal funding guaranteeing free meals for the upcoming school year.
Thousands of kids throughout the Sooner state live in food insecurity and struggle to afford meals at school already.
SSPS Superintendent Sherry Durkee issued a statement boasting the grant:
We are thrilled to offer free meals to our students this year. We know that nutritious meals are crucial to learning. The Community Eligibility Provision will help alleviate food insecurity for many Sandites, allowing them to focus on their education.
Hunger Free Oklahoma's president, Chris Bernard, pointed out not all information is public for the 2024-25 school year, but the number of schools eligible to guarantee free meals tripled to over 1500 throughout the state, including all of Tulsa Public Schools.
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"We work with a lot of districts to try and get them there, to think about how to engage families in these various benefit programs to help them qualify to feed every kid for free," Bernard said. "I can tell you, I'm fairly certain Tahlequah and Vinita also adopted it this year for the first time."
"(The state's eligibility standards) look at kids who are on certain benefits. And until this year, kids on Medicaid weren't counted towards that. And now they are. So that was a step the state department actually had to apply for almost two years ago for it to count this year and schools to be able to consider it. So that was huge, and that made it a more financially viable option for a lot of schools. More schools are eligible to do this, but also way more are opting in to do it because they recognize how big the need is for their kids," Bernard added.
Leticia Williams is Executive Director of Against Global Hunger, formerly called Kids Against Hunger-Tulsa. Her son, Hayden, helps in outreach to areas like Sand Springs, especially with families with kids his age.
"The need is everywhere," Hayden said. "It's pretty often someone calls and asks for meals. (They can be) my age, younger than me, older than me...We package meals (at public housing sites) sometimes or deliver them to schools whenever there's a need."
About one in four Oklahoma children miss meals each week, according to Feeding America, and many of the meals they do get aren't even up to basic nutritional needs.
Sand Springs landing the grant, Leticia Williams said, is a crucial boost.
"And all around Tulsa, there's a need. But yeah, in Sand Springs, there is," she said. "And we hear about it a lot and we try to help quite a bit. And to see the food bank and the school districts are working together, they're coming right into the neighborhood where it's desperately needed – I mean, that's a win."
Parents and guardians do not need to submit any applications for the free meal program, but are asked to fill out an economic status form that will help the district secure funding.
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