LUNCH DEBATE RAGES IN D.C., CAFETERIAS

When Rush Limbaugh issued an edict last week, his followers obeyed.

The conservative talk radio king asked his audience to call news agencies and tell them to "stop lying" about the Republican plan to revise the National School Lunch Program. The Southeast Missourian's editorial staff received several calls.

"Newspapers are representing Republicans as cutting the program, taking food away from hungry kids," Limbaugh chief of staff Kit Carson said. "Republicans are actually asking for a 4.5 percent increase."

It's tough to determine what is an increase or decrease in the program. Under H.R. 1214, which includes the School-Based Nutrition Block Grant, federal money would go to states in annually increasing amounts, rising from $6.7 billion in FY 1996 to $7.8 billion in FY 2000.

States would have to use 80 percent of the grant to provide meals to children, but they could allocate 20 percent for other nutrition programs, including the Women, Infants and Children program.

The National School Lunch Program, in place since 1946, would cease to exist.

Repeated calls to House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt's media relations department went unreturned. A person answering phones at the office said he wasn't aware of a Democratic plan to counter the Republican bill, but deferred to Gephardt's media relations staff.

Although the GOP plan is an increase over what the schools received this year, Food Service Director Lisa Elfrink, who works for Cape Girardeau Public Schools, said the change really can't be called an increase. That's because under the old plan, schools were scheduled to receive an even greater increase.

Elfrink's main concern is the 20 percent states can give to other programs, although she believes school lunch is sacred in Missouri and that the program has support in Jefferson City.

Some 24 percent of Cape Girardeau students benefit from the free or reduced-cost lunch program available to low-income families.

But every student who eats lunch at school benefits from the National School Lunch Program. Some 17 cents of a student's plate is subsidized, and another 16 cents comes from government commodity foods.

"It doesn't only affect kids who receive a free or reduced-price lunch," Elfrink said. "They're all getting a hot lunch, and we try to make it as nutritious as we can and still get kids to consume it."

Sikeston Public Schools have a much higher percentage -- more than half of all students -- receiving free or reduced-price lunches. Food Service Director Dorothy Lawrence said she has heard the comments about free lunches being nothing more than another welfare handout.

"I laugh when I hear remarks about letting parents pack peanut butter sandwiches," she said. "How many students do you think would come to school without a peanut butter sandwich or anything else? People who make those remarks haven't given much thought to it."

Lawrence, like Scott City Superintendent Douglas Berry, hopes Congress simply leaves school lunches alone.

Berry said the program works. It doesn't involve much bureaucratic red tape, and the money goes where it is supposed to go.

"We have a lot of students who get both free breakfasts and lunches at school," Berry said. "At least we know they are getting two nutritious meals a day."

The full House of Representatives will consider welfare reform, including H.R. 1214, this week. Democrats will be allowed to offer two comprehensive substitutes to the Republican version of welfare reform.