Increasing the enrollment of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals helps to improve student learning, reduce childhood hunger in your community, and strengthen the financial resources of your school meals program.  

Most importantly, we must change the message associated with applying for school meals!  When families discover that enrolling their children in school meals can help bring funding for educational programs and free summer or afterschool meals to all of the children in their community, they jump at the chance to contribute.  Let families know that they are helping their school by applying.

Here are some resources to help you increase the number of families who return their school meals applications at the beginning of the school year:

• Hang this flyer/poster up around your school, have your IT person post this image front and center on your school's website and Facebook page, and include it in your school newsletter.
• Send this flyer home to families along with the application, or hand them out with the application at your school's fall Open House or other events for parents. You can customize the flyer with your contact information before you print it, so that parents have someone they can call if they need help filling out the application. Some school food service managers have also copied this flyer onto the back side of the menus they send home to parents. 
• Put this short article in your school’s newsletter, or in your meals program newsletter.  You can modify this article for your school.

Encourage ALL families, regardless of eligibility to return free/reduced price school meal applications. Schools have found that this helps to remove stigma for low-income students and reaches those families who mistakenly think they are not eligible. VT schools have gotten all students to return the applications by:

• Making the school meals application one of the mandatory forms required from every family.
• Providing incentives, such as free breakfast for a period of time, for any student returning the form (this could increase your breakfast participation too!).
• Inviting parents for breakfast and coffee, and offering personal assistance with the applications in the cafeteria or at open house.

Download Hunger Free Vermont's Guide to Increasing Enrollment in School Meals for more ideas!