Sioux Falls’ largest restaurant — Child Nutrition in the Sioux Falls School District — may not be as accessible to students this year because of USDA regulation changes passed by Congress.
Gay Anderson, Child Nutrition coordinator, said she has a “little bit of heartburn” at legislation Congress approved in July that changed SNAP benefits and verification of applications, “making things a little bit more difficult for some.”
Families applying for SNAP now have to meet work requirements and verify they’re working 20 hours. Anderson said many families who qualified for SNAP in the past “probably will not qualify going forward,” or may not sign up for SNAP benefits for various reasons, and will need to fill out an income-based meal application.
The district also now has to verify all income-based meal applications. It previously verified about 3% of them, and of the 88 families the district had to verify last year, only a quarter of them stayed in free and reduced-price meal benefits while the rest “all fell off,” Anderson said.
Verifying 100% is a “little bit of a daunting thought process,” Anderson said. She said her department may need to add one or two full-time employees and some temporary workers to assist with verifying applications.
Those applications include looking at the paystubs, child support received, Social Security benefits and more financial information of everyone in the household, including grandparents or minors with jobs regardless of if they contribute to the household earnings or not.
“It’ll be rather interesting how Congress expects us to make this happen,” Anderson said.
In the first few weeks of school so far, an average of 4,720 students ate breakfast at the schools, and an average of 15,237 students ate lunch at the schools. Anderson said those numbers usually increase in October and remain steady through May.
Nearly half of the district’s students — 49.7% — qualify for free or reduced-price meals, Anderson said, including 9,479 who qualify for free meals and 2,905 who qualify for reduced-price meals. She said it’s the highest count she’s seen in the district, but it could change by October.
She said 5,250 applications for free and reduced-price meals had come in by Sept. 22. Families who were approved for free and reduced-price meals last year have a grace period until Oct. 4 to reapply for the benefits until they “fall off,” Anderson said. As of Sept. 15, 1,235 families — more than 1,800 students — still needed to reapply or face reverting to paid meals.
Of note, students at Hawthorne Elementary School, Horace Mann, Axtell Park and the learning lab all have free meals thanks to Community Eligibility Provision because of direct certification numbers from SNAP. Some of that will change next school year, Anderson said, so the district will monitor that closely and make decisions by April 1, 2026.
What if you are denied free and reduced-price meal benefits?
Families denied free or reduced-price meal benefits who fell within 185-200% of federal poverty guidelines had their meal prices covered by Angel Fund donors last school year. This year, that range will increase to 210% after donors recommended increasing it.
“We… figured that we could try and help more families by making the recommendation,” Anderson said.
Last year, 211 students benefited from the Angel Fund support, and this year, 336 students benefit so far, Anderson said.
Previous matches for families who fell within 200-215% of the guidelines where a parent would pay $1 and the Angel Fund would cover $3, and a match for those within 215-230% of the guidelines where the parent would pay $3 and the Angel Fund would cover $1, have been eliminated.
The district will reevaluate funding in late November to determine if it’s possible to continue this new funding plan for the rest of the school year.
Where meals are prepared
Last year, the district piloted preparing meals for Anne Sullivan Elementary School at Washington High School, meals for Laura Wilder Elementary School at Edison Middle School, and meals for Hayward Elementary School at Jefferson High School.
This year that same idea will expand to meal preparation at Ben Reifel Middle School for Rosa Parks Elementary School, meal preparation at Lincoln High School for Robert Frost Elementary School, and meal preparation at George McGovern Middle School for Marcella LeBeau Elementary School.
Anderson said this lets Child Nutrition workers cook meals as close to where and when they’ll be served as possible, and also makes the hot food warmer, more appealing and better quality.
By preparing meals at these schools, it moves 2,800 hot meals that otherwise would’ve been cooked at Central Kitchen. Anderson said this contributes to less food waste.
Why some SFSD students might not get free, reduced-price lunch anymore
