Free- And Reduced-Lunch Program Rolls Jump 58% In Schools, Threaten HSA Pizza Fundraiser

The growing number a low-income students in the Caldwell-West Caldwell schools has put in jeopardy a lucrative and popular Home and School Association fundraiser.

The Caldwell-West Caldwell School District has seen a 58.5-percent increase in low-income students eligible for the federal free- and reduced-lunch program this school year, said Board Administrator Kerry Keane.

The district has gone from 82 students receiving free or reduced lunches last year to 130 students participating in the program this year. The largest increase was seen in students receiving free lunches, which ballooned 68 percent and went from 66 students last year to 111.

While there was a large increase in students eligible for the federal program last year, Keane said more and more students have been participating in the program over the years. 

“It’s been an upward trend,” said Keane, “where our total enrollment in the district has been stable.”

Last year the district did not participate in the federal program and received no subsidies. Instead, the district picked up the tab for those eligible students.

“We paid for those lunches” because the cost was minimal, said Keane.

But when the district opted into the federal program, a state statue included a “non-compete clause," which prohibits any additional foods from being service during designated lunch times, said Keane. 

The state statue effectively makes Home and School Associations’ Monday pizza lunch fundraiser illegal.

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Monday’s mean pizza in elementary school cafeterias. 

Every week for more than a decade, parents have ordered pizzas from local pizzerias and taken them to their children’s schools to be sold as a fundraiser for the school’s HSA.

And the pizza fundraisers generate some serious dough, which gets funneled back into the schools to pay for educational assemblies, parties, field-days and more.

“It was a win-win for everybody,” said Catherine Stieve, president of Jefferson School HSA. “The kids loved it; the parents didn’t have to make lunch in the morning. … That’s why we made so much money.” 

Stieve said the pizza lunches account for 50 percent of Jefferson School’s $20,000 HSA budget. And while the HSAs can continue serving pizza lunches this year, the district informed them it will most likely be discontinued next year. 

“The administration took away this funding very suddenly,” said Stieve. “They … didn’t give any thought to how are we going to make up those funds.”

Making up the money will not be easy for any of the HSAs, said Stieve. Many people in the community are dealing with fundraising fatigue, as the HSAs compete with various other local churches and charities year-round.   

“You can’t fundraise an additional $10,000 a year out of people who are already fundraised to death,” said Stieve.

And HSA members directing their disappointment and anger at the Caldwell-West Caldwell Board of Education. 

For the last months, parents have attended board meetings and voiced their dissatisfaction over losing a long-running fundraiser.

“A lot of people are upset about this,” said Stieve to the board at Monday’s meeting in front of more than a dozen other HSA members in the audience.

Stieve also began an online petition asking the board to “Help the Caldwell-West Caldwell elementary schools after ending our pizza lunch fundraisers.” As of Tuesday, the petition has 263 signatures.

“I wanted to give those people who can’t come to the meeting to say, ‘This is important to us and we are putting our names down to show how important it is,’” said Stieve.

The online petition can be found by clicking here.

But the HSAs are not the only ones upset about the potential loss of the pizza lunches.

“It’s a steady check you can count on every week,” said Phylli Giuliano, owner of Frank’s Trattoria. The West Caldwell pizzeria makes about 40 pizzas a week for the HSA fundraiser at Jefferson School. 

Giuliano said she would be disappointed if the pizza lunches were canceled. While the schools get a great discount on pizza, Giuliano said it’s an advertisement for the pizzeria, too. 

“That’s extra money every month you can use to pay your … bills,” said Giuliano.

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Before this school year, the Caldwell-West Caldwell District was paying for its students’ free and reduced lunches out of its budget.

And that number was growing every year. 

The district ran up a bill of approximately $40,000 to offer its own free- and reduced-lunch program for low-income students, according to Keane.

Based on growing numbers of students eligible for free- and reduced-lunch program and predicting costs would continue to climb in the coming years, the district decided to participate in the federal program, said Keane. 

The federal free- and reduced-lunch program will pay the district the entire cost for each free meal offered to eligible students, which is $3.25, and .40 cents for each reduced meal, which is a portion of the cost of the meal, said Keane.

Keane contends that the jump in low-income students in the public schools did not happen all at once.

When the district began participating in the federal program, the state also took an active roll in identifying all students in the district who were eligible for the free- and reduced-lunch program.

Those eligible students were able to by-pass the traditional application process and were “directly certified” for the program, said Keane. The families were notified during the summer that their children were eligible and enrolled in the program.

Many of those families were also not aware the program even existed, said Keane, until they were notified. And there has been “very good response” from families of students now receiving free or reduced lunches, said Keane.

While there have been recent high-profile articles alleging school board members have cheated the free- and reduced-lunch program, such as in the Elizabeth School District, Keane was not overly concerned about fraud.

She added that there are new safeguards in place this year to prevent ineligible families and district employees from illegally taking part in the program.

In addition to state statue prohibiting serving other foods during lunch, there is also a non-compete clause written into the district’s contract with its new food-service provider, Maschio’s Food Service.

The non-compete clause with a service provider, said Keane, is not new. Although it was not enforced, the district had a non-compete clause with its previous food provider Aramark as well.

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While the elementary school HSAs continue their pizza lunches this year, the fate of the fundraiser next year is uncertain.

When the district learned about the non-compete clause during the summer, Keane said she met with the HSAs about discontinuing the pizza lunches for the 2013-14 school year.

However, due to the sudden change, the district and food-service provider allowed the HSAs to continue offering pizza lunches for this school year as a show of “good faith,” said Keane.

As for next year, the district has yet to compile enough information to make an “informed decision,” said Keane. 

But she added, “Nothing is off the table.” 

She was also not certain whether the numbers of students opting into the free- and reduced-lunch program would rise again next year. 

The numbers would “depend upon the economy,” Keane said, in addition to a host of other factors.

And while Keane said at Monday’s board meeting that the issue of allowing pizza lunches in the elementary school’s next year is under “attorney review,” she believes the pizza fundraiser would be illegal if they district opts into the federal program.

“You cannot serve food as a fund-raising activity during specific school lunch time” next year if the district participates in the federal program, said Keane. 

“We’ll try to come to an understanding where all parties are happy, that we follow the letter of the law and also allow the HSAs to bring in some money,” she added.

To make up some of those potential lost funds, the board proposed Monday to sell advertising space to businesses in its districtwide email blasts. The advertising revenue, if approved at the upcoming board meeting, could generate approximately $600-700 a week in funds, said Superintendent James Heinegg.

But if the HSAs cannot make up those funds next year, Stieve warned that the middle school and high school could feel a ripple effect.

The dependable fundraiser prevented the elementary school’s HSAs from applying to local nonprofits for grants, such as the Caldwell-West Caldwell Education Foundation. That could change if the pizza lunch fundraiser were nixed. 

“That money is going to get stretched much thinner,” said Stieve.

In addition, losing the pizza lunches may result in charging admission for some of the assemblies and events the HSAs traditionally put on for free.

“It’s a shame, but I don’t know how this is going to work going forward,” said Stieve.