- March 27, 2024
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All but two schools in the district are currently offering free, universal breakfast to their students this year.
Bunnell Elementary School was the only facility in Flagler County to offer free breakfast to its entire student body in the 2010-2011 school year. This year, Belle Terre Elementary got in on the program and, as Cafeteria Manager Jennifer Gonzalas put it, that’s when “everyone else jumped on board.”
According to Angie Torres, the district’s director of food services, Bunnell showed the highest level of enrollment in the free/reduced lunch program last year, at about 59%, which made it a shoe-in for federally funded free breakfast. It was Belle Terre Principal Stephen Hinson who saw the need in other schools, Gonzalas added, and pushed for the program at his campus.
“He wanted it here,” she said. “He wanted it done. And he got it.”
Hinson linked the consumption of nutritious breakfasts to improved academic performance.
“It is believed that a universal, free breakfast program will result in more children consuming a nutritious breakfast and beginning the school day ready to learn,” he said, in an email.
Beginning this year, every school in the district — except for Rymfire and Old Kings elementary schools, both of which Torres hopes to include by year’s end — is offering “the most important meal of the day,” at no charge, to every one of its students.
“It was just a matter of pushing more paperwork,” Gonzalas said.
Torres said, “The goal is to get every school on board well before the end of the school year, with board approval.”
In order to become eligible, schools must be deemed “economically needy.” They’re then reimbursed federally, depending on the number of students served, in an amount that slightly exceeds the cost of each meal.
“There’s no reason that every kid who qualifies for free meals shouldn’t be able to come in and get breakfast,” Torres said.
Last year, Belle Terre never served breakfast to many more than 300 students per day, Gonzalas said. So far, it’s closer to 400 and is projected to surpass 600.
Healthy hot and cold meals are offered daily, including cereal, omelets on croissants with sausage, and bagel sandwiches with egg, Canadian turkey bacon and cheese.
“We do what we can to make sure that the kids like it, so they keep coming,” Gonzalas said.
To combat overcrowding, Belle Terre has begun to disburse meals outside the cafeteria, on carts in the multipurpose room, and in the third/fourth-grade hallway, when students get off the bus.
One of the points of the pilot, according to Torres, is to test the program’s logistics.
“It’s just a good thing,” Gonzalas said. “We purchase the food. We do all the labor. And then we submit a claim to the government … We’re feeding the kids breakfast anyway … We’re paying (our workers) anyway. We’re not overextending ourselves in any way.”
Katrina Townsend, district director of student services, confirmed that Flagler’s financial need has risen in recent years.
“We’re serving more and more families with financial need,” she said, “(and) more and more families are eligible for financial services … It’s just sort of (the) state of Flagler’s financial situation. If you can find free breakfast at school, that’s one thing that you’re saving at home.”
Torres agreed.
“If you came and sat in our office for the first four weeks of school (when parents reapply for free/reduced lunch), and listened to some of these families’ stories … It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “It really is. So this is a phenomenal program … and it won’t be detrimental to the district in any way. It’s doing the right thing. It’s giving the kids breakfast.”
“It’s free. It’s here. Take it,” Gonzalas said. “Let’s eat, so we can focus on our school (instead of) being hungry!”
Torres plans to present a districtwide plan to the board Sept. 20.
A BELLE TERRE PERSPECTIVE
With 1,392 students currently enrolled, Belle Terre Elementary School is the most populated elementary school in the district. There are 30 portable classrooms on campus and seven overlapping lunch periods, which range from 161 to 232 students per period.
But according to Belle Terre Principal Stephen Hinson, the school is not overpopulated.
Enrollment is down, he said, compared to the near-1,500 mark it met the past two years, the school meets the Class Size Amendment and even has a few empty rooms.
“The numbers are manageable,” Hinson said, in an email, “just as long as we plan and always consider the safety of the students.”
He addressed the addition of satellite breakfast areas to reduce overcrowding.
“Time and supervision is our biggest concern,” he said. The same goes for long car-rider lines.
“It is really difficult to judge the car-rider lines with so many parents still driving their kids to school,” he said. “(But) it usually settles down after the first two weeks.”
Hinson said that recent renovations to playground/PE grounds — including additional field space and extra equipment — have had an “amazing impact” on student morale. Although his proposal for putt-putt golf was nixed, he reports that some of the younger students still refer to their new outdoor area as “Disney World.”