Students and parents will find some changes in Federal Way Public Schools’ meal programs for the 2014-2015 school year.

Five Federal Way schools were accepted into the federal Community Eligibility Program, which provides free meals for all students attending the schools, due to high numbers of low-income students. Mark Twain Elementary, Wildwood Elementary, Sunnycrest Elementary, Merit School and Olympic View schools have between 66 and 84 percent of their students qualifying for free and reduced lunches, said Mary Asplund, director of the district’s Nutrition Services.

The proportion of students who qualify for free and reduced lunches is calculated by combining the number of families who are directly certified by the Department of Social and Health Services — those using food stamps or other welfare services — plus the number of free and reduced lunch applicants approved by the school.

Of 14,341 applications for the Free and Reduced Meal program for the 2013-2014 year, the school district denied 560, 3.9 percent, said Debra Stenberg, communications director for the school district. Applications make up about 20 percent of the students on free and reduced lunches. Applications were denied either because income was over the threshold or the application was incomplete. For the latter, parents were contacted in an effort to obtain the missing information.

It can be challenging to get an accurate count of students qualifying for free and reduced lunches because parents don’t fill out required forms, perhaps because they don’t want their children to feel embarrassed, Stenberg said.

Parents need to fill out application forms for free and reduced lunches or, under the new program, parents will be asked to fill out a family economic survey. These documents are used to get state grants and funding for programs, including the Community Eligibility Provision.

Families can get help filling out the free and reduced lunches paperwork — and even if a family or household has children at several different schools, only one form is needed, as long as all the children are listed.

If families aren’t utilizing the programs, funding will be given to other districts showing a higher proportion of low-income families.

The district is also reworking its meal charge system.

The district will allow students five regular meals to be charged. Any meals charged after that will consist of a sandwich and milk. Sandwiches are either cheese sandwiches or peanut butter or sunbutter and jelly. Lunchrooms will also have a “sharing table,” where students can put any part of their meal they don’t want for other students to eat.

“We want all our children to have healthy meals and full tummies,” Stenberg said.

The district will reach out to parents through email, phone calls and notices sent home with children, reminding parents with students not on free or reduced lunches that it is time to purchase more meal tickets, starting with the first charged meal.

Meal tickets are linked with a student’s ID number, which they give when they go through the line. The system allows anonymity for any students using free or reduced lunches.

“Parents can sign their kids up without any fear of them being embarrassed in the lunch line,” Stenberg said.

The charge system has been in place for 25 years.

“We’re standardizing it now,” Asplund said.

For the last 18 months, individual schools could choose how many meals to float for children, which left the schools shouldering the costs for the meals.

In the 2013-2014 school year, Federal Way Public Schools spent about $75,000 providing meals for students, Stenberg said. About three-quarters of 1 percent of Nutrition Services’ budget, $75,000 is approximately the same as a year’s worth of compensation for a teacher, she added.

By providing alternate meals, the district will be able to trim two-thirds from its unpaid meals expenditure, paying only about $25,000.

The ultimate goal is to ensure children are fed, regardless of the family’s financial situation, Stenberg said.

Prices for lunches have remained stable since 2008. Meals include milk and approximately two ounces of meat or protein, one cup of fruits and/or vegetables and two servings of bread. For elementary schools, lunch is $2.50. For secondary schools, $2.75.

“Go to a fast food restaurant and see what you can buy for that,” Asplund said.

By going through the National School Lunch Program, the district receives a federal subsidy on all its meals, which helps keep prices stable, Stenberg said.

The alternate meal costs as little as 85 cents, and in the district’s experience parents don’t depend on alternate lunches as an indefinite solution, Stenberg said. Most parents either pay, pack a lunch or fill out an application for free and reduced lunches.

Data on low-income families is used for more than meals — schools with higher percentages of low-income students receive federal funding for many other services, including summer meal programs, preschool and college programs, Asplund said.

For more information on the Community Eligibility Provision or the Free and Reduced Lunches program, contact the district’s Nutrition Services at 253-945-5555. The Nutrition Services office is located at 1214 S. 332nd St.