As President of The Montgomery County Homeless Coalition, I spoke at last night’s Montgomery County Board of Education Meeting sharing with the board one way to immediately help the community. When looking at our local rates of those living below poverty in comparison to the National and State averages, we were very shocked that our city is almost double the national average. The local facts are astounding. According to a 2012 study done by the U.S. Census Bureau • The national rate of those living below poverty level was 15.0%. • The 2012 National poverty rate was 2.5% higher than the 2007 rate. • Kentucky’s poverty rate was 18.6%. • Montgomery County was at 25.4% • Mount Sterling was 29.3%. Median Household Incomes • Nationally $53,046 • Kentucky $42,610 • Montgomery County $35,832 • Mount Sterling $31,694 As a result, we have been looking at ways to help reduce costs for those families who are most affected. Many of these families just miss the cut off for free or reduced lunch or food stamps, (SNAP) and it is a constant struggle for them to make ends meet. During our research, the Community Eligibility Provision Program, (CEP) was discovered. This program was developed in 2012 and is federally based and funded at no cost to the school or food service program. Qualification for this program includes having an identified student percentage, (ISP) determination of 40% or more of children receiving SNAP, Medicaid, Foster Children, and those who are homeless, runaway, or certified as a migrant. According to the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition service website, every school in Montgomery County qualifies with the exception of the high school. See the chart below for each schools ISP. School Threshold Camargo 59.96 Mapleton 48.17 McNabb 42.35 Early Learning Center 52.3 Intermediate School 43.09 Mount Sterling Elem 45.85 High School 35.33 The Community Eligibility Provision Program would allow each child regardless of income, to receive breakfast and lunch at no cost to the parent or school. The school would then be reimbursed a percentage for each child in attendance. Although it would require monitoring and overseeing with monthly reports, the benefits far exceed those extra steps. As an added benefit, school employees would no longer have to spend time contacting parents about past due lunch money as well as, cut cost for the school system for unpaid lunch balances. I understand that last year’s unpaid school lunch balance was over $32,000 alone. Facts indicate that this program would not only benefit the community and this economic population significantly, but it would benefit the school lunch program as well. It should also be noted that according to the Lexington Herald Leader, the Kentucky Department of Education anticipates 100 of 173 school districts will participate in the program in 2014-15 school year and over half of Kentucky’s School Districts are currently participating. Schools can participate independently from one another if needed. Each board member was given an information packet that was derived directly from both websites listed below to help familiarize each of them with the program. I asked on behalf of our community that this topic be placed on next month’s meeting agenda for discussion, as the deadline to apply has been extended from July 29th to August 31st. I am thankful to Sharon Smith-Breiner, Board Member for her support and success in getting this topic on next months agenda. The next school board meeting is scheduled for July 17th at 6:30pm at the Montgomery County High School cafeteria. I look forward to attending and would encourage all local citizens to do the same. Thank you, Amy Conley For more information about this program please visit the links provided below. fns.usda.gov/school-meals/community-eligibility-provision education.ky.gov/federal/scn/pages/community-eligibility-option.aspx
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 02:14:36 +0000