​​BY JEFF CHUDZINSKI
North Country This Week 

MASSENA — Massena Central School District officials say the district hasn’t been able to offer free meals for all students but that isn’t stopping them from reevaluating those figures this year.

A state program called the Community Eligibility Provision allows low-income districts that qualify to offer free meals for all students. 

School officials say the program needs to be reviewed by the district as well because there could be large costs to the district if the financials aren’t as expected. 

Some factors are the level of poverty in the community, as well as the number of students who are participating in the school meal program. 

School officials say some of the criteria that students are identified by when determining who is eligible includes whether the family is on SNAP benefits, Medicaid or are “deemed foster, homeless and migrant.” 

School officials evaluated the possibility of enrolling in 2015, 2017 and 2020 but realized that the district would be on the hook for around $100,000 to participate in the program. A threshold of 40% or more of the student body must be determined as  eligible for free meals for a district to qualify. 

Though the district was not previously eligible, thanks to federal legislation passed during the COVID pandemic, the district was able to offer free meals to all students at no cost to the district. 

That funding has since expired as of June 2022, forcing the district to revert back to previous practices. 

Some state officials recently pushed to fund free meals for all students during the fiscal year 2023-2024, a move that would enable schools to feed every student breakfast and lunch every day, officials say. 

“Though the federal government declined to support free meals this year, there continues to be a lobbying effort to urge the state to do so starting next year. While we continue to support and monitor this effort, we also plan to look once again at the CEP program this spring as applications are due in June based on our eligibility data on April 1,” Superintendent Pat Brady said. 

Food Service Manager Kristin Colarusso-Martin said a number of districts have moved to provide free meals for all students since the federal funding expired. 

Colarusso-Martin said she has applied for a handful of grants to offset the cost of meals, including a grant for $8,734 from the Local Food for Schools Program and grant for $71,800 for supply chain assistance. 

Officials hope if the grants are secured the district can begin to make the first steps toward offering all students free meals throughout the course of the year.