In determining who is poor enough to qualify for lunch, Philadelphia relies on surveys that ask about family income, which local advocates say does the best job of counting needy children. The proposal in Congress, however, would establish eligibility by a family's presence on food-stamp and welfare rolls, a method known as direct certification.
The change could extend free lunch to students across the country, but officials say it could threaten Philadelphia's unique program. Michael Masch, chief business officer for the district, said the change could deny free lunches to as many as 51,182 students - 46 percent of the Philadelphia children who now receive such meals.
"We want to see our congressional delegation convince colleagues to allow Philadelphia's model to continue," Masch said.
Advocates say many people who are eligible for such benefits do not apply for them. Jonathan Stein, of Community Legal Services, says Philadelphia has many immigrant Asian and Hispanic children whose families do not know they're eligible for food stamps or are afraid to deal with government.
"The beauty of the survey method is you could find all the poor kids that direct certification misses," Stein said.
Also of concern is the frequent misspelling of foreign names, which makes it difficult to match lists of students with food stamp rolls, said Vonda Fekete, director of child nutrition programs for the state Department of Education.
The Senate Agriculture Committee recently decided to count as eligible children whose families get food stamps or welfare. To address concerns about families who have not applied, it suggested increasing the number eligible by applying a multiplier of 1.6, which Masch said would allow Philadelphia's program to continue at the current level.
Congress, however, indicated that it might allow the USDA to lower the multiplier to 1.3, which district officials said would be trouble for Philadelphia's program.
U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and Arlen Specter, both D-Pa., said they are concerned about the prospect of changing the program.
