A school nutrition pilot program is expected to make serving low-income students in Kentucky school districts easier in the 2012-2013 school year.

Kentucky joins Alaska, Florida, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania in the demonstration phase of a program to use Medicaid data to determine elibility for school meal assistance. The project is under the authority of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which manages the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs.

When we applied for this pilot project, I think the USDA saw that Kentucky is a leader in this area, and that there was a need for this because we do have such a high level of students who are eligible for this, said Lisa Gross, Kentucky Department of Education spokesperson.

Currently, 56 percent of students in Kentuckys public school system qualify for free or reduced-price school meals, which puts Kentucky in the top ten in need, said Gross.

Calloway County has 57.13 percent of student on free and reduced-price meals, and 39 percent of students in the MISD qualify for free and reduced-price meals, according to school district data.

(Kentucky) has also been doing direct certification, which is what this program is, through programs like SNAP, which is the federal nutrition program, and K-TAP which is the state version of that program for low income families, so we have a pool of people we know will benefit from this, stated Gross.

The number of students served through free and reduced-price lunch is likely to increase slightly in districts. However, the greatest benefit is expected to be efficiency. Using Medicaid data will cut down on the amount of paperwork that school districts have to do, and that is something that excites Pat Lane, school nutrition programs director for Calloway County Schools.

Im very excited to learn that we will have access to the Medicaid data as an additional resource for the 2012-2013 school year. From our office computers, we will be able to verify a familys participation in Medicaid and then greatly expedite our process to offer free or reduced price meals to students, said Lane. It will also mean one less financial aid application for a family to complete, which should provide even greater privacy and security. The end result of this program will be fewer hungry kids, and thats awesome.

Mallory Cathey, MISD school nutrition director, called the pilot program wonderful.

Any way we, as a district, can qualify more students and get them fed nutritious meals at no cost to them is a win/win situation, she said.

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Nutrition pilot program to help serve students