Hunger awareness group Hunger Solutions New York says the federal Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016 “would harm the nutritional safety net” for students in 11 St. Lawrence County school districts.

The bill proposes to substantially increase the threshold schools must meet to participate in the federal Community Eligibility Provision, which allows high-poverty schools to significantly reduce administrative work and streamline program operations, enabling schools to offer breakfast and lunch at no charge to all students, according to HSNY.

The bill would cause 427 of the 1,380 participating New York State schools to lose community eligibility, a move that would affect nearly 130,000 students,” the group said in a news release. “An additional 775 schools would lose eligibility to participate in the future.”

The following shows St. Lawrence County School districts that would lose Community Eligibility Provision and how many schools in the district would be impacted:

• Canton, 1

• Clifton-Fine, 1

• Edwards-Knox, 1

• Gouverneur, 2

• Hermon-Dekalb, 1

• Heuvelton, 1

• Madrid-Waddington, 1

• Massena, 2

• Morristown, 1

• Norwood-Norfolk, 2

• Ogdensburg City, 1

In districts where community eligibility has been adopted, student participation in school breakfast and lunch has increased, according to HSNY.

“Increased participation has been shown to improve student achievement, diets and behavior, and to help reduce food insecurity and other poverty-related hardships among children in areas of concentrated poverty,” their statement reads.

In addition to restricting community eligibility, the bill “dramatically increases” verification requirements on school meal applications in ways that “would cause eligible students to lose access to free or reduced-price school meals,” HSNY said.

“Under the proposal, thousands of school districts that still rely on paper applications to determine eligibility for those meals would be required to verify significantly more applications, creating burdens for schools and families,” their statement says. “A disproportionate number of the most vulnerable families, such as those who are homeless, migrant, immigrant or have limited English proficiency, would likely fall through the cracks and lose access to these school meals even though they are eligible.”

The group alleges the bill would “significantly weaken evidence-based school nutrition standards for meals, snacks and beverages.” Nearly all school districts participating in community eligibility (98.5 percent) are meeting the improved school lunch nutrition standards, providing mostly whole grains, less salt, more fruits and vegetables, and healthier snacks and beverages, according to the group.

“Harvard University researchers recently concluded that the improvement in nutrition standards for school meals, snacks, and beverages is ‘one of the most important national obesity prevention policy achievements in recent decades.’ These improvements are estimated to prevent more than two million cases of childhood obesity and save up to $792 million in health-care related costs over 10 years,” according to the HSNY release.

“The House bill also inadequately invests in summer food programs. In New York, less than 30 percent of children who eat free or reduced-price school lunch are participating in the Summer Food Service Program, exacerbating the nutritional gap faced by many kids during the summer months.”

The group claims for children in child care, the bill “denies reimbursement to child care centers and daycare homes for additional snacks or meals (beyond two) to children in care for long hours.”

Congress reauthorizes child nutrition programs every five years. The most recent reauthorization culminated with the 2010 Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, which expired Sept. 30, HSNY said.

“The House Education and Workforce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the issue, has not announced a formal timeline for action on the current reauthorization bill,” their statement reads.