The number of schools in the Barren River area providing all students with free breakfast and lunch will double next school year.

In the 2017-18 school year, Barren County, Allen County, Simpson County and Butler County schools will join Russellville Independent, Hart County, Glasgow Independent and Caverna Independent schools in participating in the Community Eligibility Provision program, which reimburses districts and schools with federal dollars for breakfasts and lunches students receive at no charge.

CheyAnne Fant, Barren County Schools’ director of nutrition services, said expanding opportunities for students to eat breakfast and lunch will improve their performance in school and will be a relief for parents as well.

“We are excited as a district but we are also excited for the families,” she said.

According to Fant, it costs a household $650 to purchase school breakfast and lunch each day through the school year for one child.

Many families in the district find this cost burdensome, she said.

With the need to pay for school meals taken away from parents throughout the district, CEP will economically benefit the community, Fant said.

“It allows families to give that money back to the community and use it in more useful areas in their own homes,” she said.

After providing free breakfast for all students for the past three years, Simpson County Schools will start providing students with both breakfast and lunch this coming school year.

According to food service director Sarah Richardson, the district has been eligible for CEP at every school for a few years but has not offered both meals at all schools before because of worries that the reimbursements the district would receive under the program wouldn’t be enough.

The percentage of a meal CEP reimburses increases with the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced meals, Richardson said.

“We’re going full CEP, which means all students in all schools,” she said. “We’re just excited to offer this program for the students and hope it will be beneficial for everyone.”

By providing all students with access to free meals, it places them on a more equal footing, Richardson said.

“The CEP program kind of dissolves the stigma of qualifying for free and reduced,” she said.

Students who are eligible for free and reduced meals frequently are not homeless or the children of unemployed parents, Richardson said.

“It pretty much just means these families live paycheck to paycheck,” she said.

Allen County Schools is extending CEP participation to Allen County High School, the only school in the district not involved with the program before.

Mary Hobdy, the district’s food service coordinator, said this coming school year will be the fourth that the district is involved with CEP.

The high school was the last to be covered under CEP because the need for parents to be relieved financially is greater when their children are younger, she said.

“They’re just getting started. They’re not really and truly established,” she said, adding that parents tend to be more financially secure by the time their children are in high school.

Free school meals promote health by allowing students to eat the school’s nutritious meals, Hobdy said.

“That’s going to have them eating healthy meals with us,” she said.

Taking away the need for children to worry about whether or not they’ll be able to eat in school will also sharpen their focus and improve their performance in class, Hobdy said.

“It’s definitely going to be a positive thing for the students of the Allen County school district,” she said.