LAUREL — The number of students qualifying for free and reduced lunches is generally on the rise in Montana with nearly 69,000 students qualifying across the state during the last school year.
In Laurel, three elementary schools, South, West, and Graff, will offer free lunches to their students this year.
“We’re up into the high 40 percents right now in those schools, 47, 48, (and) 49 percent. So, about one out of every two kids qualifies to be a reduced lunch student," said Matt Torix, the Laurel Public Schools' superintendent.
Local Facebook users are wondering: why not all students?
“(The answer) goes back to federal qualifications. We don’t choose that. We would just as soon feed every kid, every day," said Torix.
The three-decade education professional said the disparity found in which grade levels will receive free meals stems from the return rate of eligibility forms and differences in lifestyles between students of various ages.
“The older kids, generally, they don’t fill out free and reduced lunch forms at the same rate," said Torix, "High school kids tend to go home, they go eat on their own, they go run to McDonalds.”
He said he hopes the numbers of those receiving this kind of aid will go down, despite stats having only continued trending upward over the last three school years.
“I don’t want more and more and more kids to qualify for free and reduced lunch ‘cause that means more and more families are struggling," said Torix.
