Free, reduced-price lunches fed more than half of Cape Girardeau County's public school students in 2016

By Mark Bliss

Southeast Missourian

More than half of Cape Girardeau County public school students received free or reduced-price lunches in 2016, according to the latest community health assessment.

The Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center’s assessment found the percentage of students enrolled in the National School Lunch program increased by nearly 3 percent from 2012 to 2016.

The enrollment rate was 50.6% in 2016, slightly below the statewide figure of 51.5%, the assessment said.

The assessment report also cited 2017 figures for the Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Delta, Nell Holcomb and Oak Ridge school districts.

According to the report, more than 78% of Delta’s students were enrolled in the subsidized lunch program. In the Cape Girardeau district, more than 64% were enrolled in the program.

The remaining percentage rates were 43.3 at Oak Ridge, 39.7 at Nell Holcomb and 37.6 at Jackson, the report said.

According to the assessment, the number of students enrolled in the lunch program is “another indicator of the effect of poverty/low income in a population.”

The Cape Girardeau School District adopted a new program last August provides free breakfasts and lunches to all students.

A federal program provided the district with $1.5 million in funding for the program.

School officials said the district had to meet certain eligibility requirements, including an identified 40 percent of students living at or below the poverty line.

Cape Girardeau public schools superintendent Neil Glass told the Southeast Missourian last year the program is a nationwide program meant to help districts address high levels of poverty.

“Kids can’t learn if they’re sitting there hungry,” Glass said. “We have to meet those basic needs to be able to educate.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

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