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Changes to USDA school-meal program in Philadelphia condemned

In pointed language usually avoided by politicians, both Pennsylvania senators and Mayor Nutter yesterday excoriated the U.S. Department of Agriculture for terminating an innovative breakfast-and-lunch program in Philadelphia schools.

Students Joseph Olivo, left, and Jamere Preston eat lunch at Laura Waring Elementary School. Sen. Arlen Specter and other politicians are disappointed that the USDA will teminate an important school meal program in the School District of Philadelphia. (Sarah J. Glover / Staff Photographer)
Students Joseph Olivo, left, and Jamere Preston eat lunch at Laura Waring Elementary School. Sen. Arlen Specter and other politicians are disappointed that the USDA will teminate an important school meal program in the School District of Philadelphia. (Sarah J. Glover / Staff Photographer)Read more

In pointed language usually avoided by politicians, both Pennsylvania senators and Mayor Nutter yesterday excoriated the U.S. Department of Agriculture for terminating an innovative breakfast-and-lunch program in Philadelphia schools.

"It's bizarre," Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) said.

"It's incomprehensible," Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) said.

"This is one of the most cruel and inhuman decisions any government could make ... a stupid decision," Nutter said.

The trio, along with Democratic U.S. Reps. Allyson Schwartz and Chaka Fattah, aimed their ire at the USDA in a news conference at the Waring School in Spring Garden.

The 17-year-old Universal Feeding Program is the only one of its kind in the United States. Created for poor students, Universal Feeding does not require families to fill out applications for free or reduced-price meals. The effect is to maximize student participation.

The USDA has said it needs the applications to better monitor the program.

The Inquirer last week revealed the USDA plan to pull the plug on Universal Feeding by the beginning of the 2010 school year.

The change would affect about 121,000 students getting free and reduced-price meals. It also could cost the district $800,000, and perhaps millions, more.

Yesterday, Casey and Specter vowed to fight to keep the program. If the USDA does not cooperate, Casey said, "I will introduce a legislative extension of the Philadelphia program as soon as we are back in session."

So confident is Specter that he said there was "no doubt" the program would be restored.

Universal Feeding was based on an idea proposed in 1991 by Jonathan Stein, general counsel of Community Legal Services.

It eliminated the need for poor children and their parents to fill out applications for school meals, which are for some children the only nutritious food they eat in a day.

At Stein's suggestion, Temple University researchers surveyed Philadelphia schools and learned that about 200 of the district's 281 schools had a high enrollment of low-income children.

"If you have a large majority of poor children in a school, get rid of the paper applications, and just provide free lunches and breakfasts for everyone," Stein said.

And, Stein said after yesterday's news conference, the Temple study - revised last year by the Reinvestment Fund in Philadelphia - actually offers much more accurate and detailed information about the incomes of poor families than traditional free-meal applications.

The USDA underwrote Universal Feeding in the city for what it termed a pilot program that wound up lasting nearly 20 years.

The lack of paperwork saved the district money. "Filling out 120,000 forms costs more than feeding the children," Specter said.

Universal Feeding also addressed a more subtle problem: the stigma of receiving free meals.

"In the school, there would be one line for free-food kids and another for kids paying," Nutter said. "Maybe some of us forgot what it's like to be in that situation."

Studies show that children who are eligible for free or reduced-cost meals often do not eat them if better-off students pay for their own.

Numbers bear that out: The participation rate for eligible children at the Philadelphia Universal Feeding sites has been nearly twice the rate as at non-Universal sites - 80 percent vs. 45 percent, according to figures from the State Department of Education.

The USDA did not comment yesterday. A USDA spokeswoman said last week that the agency decided it preferred a standard in which every child applied individually for meals because it would be more accurate.

But Casey suggested yesterday that the USDA announced the end of Universal Feeding only after other cities - including New York City and Los Angeles - had asked the agency about adapting the program.

Why wouldn't the USDA want a successful program duplicated around the country? asked Schwartz. "It's outrageous and unacceptable," she added. "We have to stand up for hungry children in America."

A USDA spokeswoman has said that the program was not ended simply because other cities wanted it.

Casey said he had not heard directly from USDA about why the change was made.

But, he added, "this program was working. Children were getting needed nutrition. I don't think ending the program makes any sense."