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IMPROVED NUTRITION IS FOCUS
Clay and Gilmer County schools have joined a pilot program with five other counties to provide free breakfast and lunch to school children regardless of family income.
Officials say they hope to increase the numbers of students who eat school meals not only by offering them free of charge, but also by serving breakfast a little later in the day.
Part of the program is to have cooks prepare more meals from scratch.
Seven entire county school systems are participating in the Universal Feeding Pilot program, in addition to Gilmer and Clay, counties are Fayette, Lincoln, Mason, McDowell and Mingo.
One Kanawha County school is participating.
All of the counties involved already have a high rate of students that meet poverty guidelines for free or reduced lunch.
Seventy-percent or more of Calhoun students meet those guidelines.
Schools will be required to collect new data about family income.
"The better collection we have, the better we'll be able to discern who is entitled to federal subsidies," said Richard Goff, executive director of the state Department of Education's Office of Child Nutrition.
The counties with the most students eating free or reduced-price meals stand to get more money in federal reimbursements.
Clay County Superintendent Kenneth Tanner has issued a slogan for program, "If all kids eat, all kids eat free."
About 70 percent of Clay County students are economically disadvantaged, Tanner said.
"A lot of these families have to drive to Charleston and Summersville just because of our county's economic situation, and gas prices are really tough, so this is something we can do to put a few dollars back in the pocket of the community," Tanner said.
Tanner said Clay County must bump up the breakfast participation by 25 percent and lunch by 10 percent to receive $85,000 more in federal reimbursements under the new program.
The state Department of Education's Nutrition Office says that 29 percent of students statewide ate school-provided breakfast last year and 53 percent ate lunch.
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