By Janaki Jane, LEAF Direct Services Advocate
Piles of paper, packages of glue, boxes of crayons and bags of pencils: over the last couple of weeks, Lyons area residents have had to buy, on average, $75 of school supplies per child in school. LEAF had a terrific response to our request on Facebook for school supplies for Food Pantry clients. Anyone who has had a child in school in recent years knows how expensive that becomes. Over 15% of Lyons Elementary children qualify for
free or reduced lunches. What does that mean? It means that the $2.75 per day for lunch is partially or completely subsidized. Who qualifies? It’s dependent on the amount of income per family size. The formula takes into account family size as a percentage of poverty-level income. If a family’s income is up to 130% of poverty, the children qualify for free lunch. If a family’s income is up to 185% of poverty, the children qualify for reduced lunches.
In order to get lunches for free, a family of four needs to live on under $32,000 a year. That’s one person earning $15.16 per hour or less. If both parents work minimum wage jobs, thus bringing in essentially $16.46 an hour, that family doesn’t qualify for free lunches—just reduced. A family that gets reduced lunches can earn up to $45,000 a year, from all sources, including all forms of assistance.
- See more at: http://www.lyonsrecorder.com/index.php/lyons-chatter/6358-breaking-down-the-numbers-free-and-reduced-lunches#sthash.PZLhDzrC.dpuf
Piles of paper, packages of glue, boxes of crayons and bags of pencils: over the last couple of weeks, Lyons area residents have had to buy, on average, $75 of school supplies per child in school. LEAF had a terrific response to our request on Facebook for school supplies for Food Pantry clients. Anyone who has had a child in school in recent years knows how expensive that becomes. Over 15% of Lyons Elementary children qualify for
free or reduced lunches. What does that mean? It means that the $2.75 per day for lunch is partially or completely subsidized. Who qualifies? It’s dependent on the amount of income per family size. The formula takes into account family size as a percentage of poverty-level income. If a family’s income is up to 130% of poverty, the children qualify for free lunch. If a family’s income is up to 185% of poverty, the children qualify for reduced lunches.
In order to get lunches for free, a family of four needs to live on under $32,000 a year. That’s one person earning $15.16 per hour or less. If both parents work minimum wage jobs, thus bringing in essentially $16.46 an hour, that family doesn’t qualify for free lunches—just reduced. A family that gets reduced lunches can earn up to $45,000 a year, from all sources, including all forms of assistance.
- See more at: http://www.lyonsrecorder.com/index.php/lyons-chatter/6358-breaking-down-the-numbers-free-and-reduced-lunches#sthash.PZLhDzrC.dpuf
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