Free and reduced lunch program is strictly confidential for students

With the new cafeteria at YHS, the free and reduced lunch

program is confidential. Students simply punch in their student number at the cashier.

Rose Butler

The reduced and free lunch program at Yosemite High School is based on family income so that qualified students can have a lunch for free or for just 40 cents.

The program has always existed, but before this school year students who had reduced or free lunches would have to stand in a separate line from others to get a reduced or free lunch. This would single them out and allow them to get teased by other students. Because of this, fewer and fewer students would want to be on the program or to use the opportunity to get a lunch.

With the new cafeteria at YHS, the free and reduced price lunch program is confidential. Students simply punch in their student number in a pad at the cashier. Since some students have a credit and do the same thing, this would seem no different from others.

Irene Keener, cafeteria manager, says many more people have signed up for the reduced/free lunch program since the beginning of the year. They provide about a hundred lunches a day to students on the program. This number is an increase from past years, but some people still don't graspthe opportunity to get a reduced or free lunch, she said.

Students in the program are allowed to get lunch anywhere except the snack bar, and they can have anything except Danny's pizza, Subway sandwiches, or soda. This is mainly because of the price. Most students don't care about that, as long as they get their food, Keener says.

Those students interested in getting a reduced or free lunch can talk to Keener. She can give them an application to fill out, and when she gets it back, she will evaluate it and let the student know if they are qualified to get on the program.