City schools defy trend on school meals
Education: Percentage of students receiving subsidized lunches falls slightly in district
Oklahoma City schools defy trend on school meals

From Staff and Wire Reports

Published: August 19, 2008

The percentage of students in Oklahoma City Public Schools eligible for free or reduced-price meals dipped this year, defying a statewide trend.

According to the state Department of Education, about 55.5 percent of Oklahoma's 640,000 students are eligible for the program, based on their parents' income. The state's two largest school districts have a higher share of eligible students.

In the Oklahoma City School District, 81.9 percent are eligible for federally subsidized meals, and in Tulsa 82.6 percent are eligible.

Those numbers have caught the attention of state schools Superintendent Sandy Garrett.

"Serving two meals a day makes us the largest restaurant in Oklahoma,” Garrett said.

Anne Roberts, executive director of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, said it's often difficult for schools to serve the needs of students who qualify for the program. She said such students often must deal not only with nutritional issues, but with stress at home and gaps in vocabulary and life experiences.

"The free and reduced numbers are the canary in the mine shaft for me, because they are an indication of poverty, and poverty does bad things to children,” Roberts said.

"We happen to be a state that benefits from high oil prices, but at the same time high oil prices are driving some of the poverty that is going on,” she said.

Editor's note: This story originally included the sentence:

According to the state Department of Education, about 640,000 students in Oklahoma are eligible for the program, or about 55.5 percent, based on their parents' income. The state's two largest school districts have a higher share of eligible students.

The sentence should read as follows:According to the state Department of Education, about 55.5 percent of Oklahoma's 640,000 students are eligible for the program, based on their parents' income.

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