'We thought we were doing a great thing': 10,000 kids lose healthy snack over IPS mistake

Thousands of Indianapolis Public Schools students will not get their regular snack of a fresh fruit or vegetable this school year — a change from previous years when the U.S. Department of Agriculture says the district was misusing federal money to purchase the produce.

Last year, IPS spent about $600,000 on produce for more than 10,000 kids at a dozen elementary schools and four middle schools. Then, the USDA told IPS it couldn't spend those dollars that way.

“We thought we were doing a great thing,” said Carrie Cline Black, district spokesperson. 

IPS had been using funds from its general food service program — money paid to the district by the USDA to reimburse it for free school breakfasts and lunches — to supplement a federal program designed to give the poorest students regular access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

That program is only available to elementary schools where at least half of students come from homes poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. So, IPS was using surplus meal-program cash to cover the costs of having the snack program at all elementary and middle schools.

For the last several years, anywhere from 34 to 37 IPS elementary schools have been awarded the federal grants that allow the district to buy the fresh produce and be reimbursed for it. This year, 34 IPS schools are in the program. 

IPS had been using money from its general food service fund to extend the program to all of its elementary and middle schools since the 2014-15 school year.

As soon as the district was made aware of the problem over the summer, it ended the snack program at those schools that weren’t eligible for federal reimbursement, Cline Black said. The district is sad, she said, to have to end the program.

“Little did we know that USDA is very specific about how you spend those funds,” Cline Black said.

Because of the district’s high poverty rate, all school meals are provided to students for free and IPS is reimbursed for the cost of those meals by USDA. That means the district’s entire food service budget is made up of federal funds and USDA is, indeed, very specific about how those funds can be spent.

Money paid to IPS for its food service, the breakfast and lunches it serves, can only be spent on “the operation or improvement of that food service,” according to the USDA. So, the district could use the money to buy fresh fruits and vegetables to serve with breakfast or lunch but not to serve as a snack outside of those meals. Districts can only carry net cash resources in excess of three months' average expenditures. Otherwise, districts may be directed to improve food quality or make other adjustments to improve the service. 

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program does reimburse schools for the produce it gives to students as a snack outside of the regular school breakfast and lunch periods, but only to those schools that qualify. The program was designed to increase access to fresh, unprocessed foods for those who are least likely to have them at home and includes a food nutrition aspect in which teachers talk about healthy foods with their students.

It is supposed to target those schools with the highest percentages of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, and is only open to elementary schools. Program eligibility requires at least half of a school’s population meet that benchmark.

Nine IPS elementary schools did not meet that threshold last school year. At Center for Inquiry School 84, fewer than 10% of students qualified for meal assistance. At Center for Inquiry School 27, a little more than one-third of students came from low-income families.

An email that went out to CFI 27 parents at the start of this school year told them state budget cuts were to blame. But the program is federally funded and hasn’t seen any substantial cuts.

A statement posted to the IPS website blamed changes to USDA program guidelines.

“Because of new guidelines from the Department of Agriculture (USDA), IPS’ Food Service Department will no longer be allowed to offer free fruit and vegetable snacks to schools that don’t meet the eligibility requirements,” the statement said.

A USDA spokesperson said, though, that the program hasn’t changed since 2008, when it became a permanent, nationwide program.

The rules for how IPS can spend the money paid to it for breakfast and lunch reimbursements hasn’t changed, either, said a USDA spokesperson.

Cline Black said the district knows the rules are not new, but they were new to district officials who hadn’t been aware of them until now.

“Clearly it’s been a little bit of a challenge to explain it,” she said.

Cline Black said the district was amending the statement posted to the IPS website and sending out clarifications to impacted schools.

Call IndyStar education reporter Arika Herron at 317-201-5620 or email her at Arika.Herron@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.