61.8% of South Lake Tahoe Students Receive Free or Reduced Cost Lunches

In a community where the economy and weather affect jobs and business levels, perhaps no better indicator is the number of South Lake Tahoe school students who are dependent on the free or reduced cost school lunch program.

Currently, 61.8% of all students are on these programs in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District, ranging from a high of 81.3% of the students at Tahoe Valley Elementary to a low of 19.3% at the Environmental Science Magnet School.

According to federal guidelines family of 4 can earn up to $43,568 (185% of poverty level) to receive reduced priced lunches, and up to $30,615 (130% of poverty level) to receive free lunches.

There are currently 3,855 students in LTUSD, with 1,898 at the elementary schools, 787 at the middle school, 1,127 at STHS and Mt. Tallac combined and 43 participating in the Transitional Learning Center.

While most schools in South Lake Tahoe have been seeing fewer numbers of students qualifying under federal guidelines since the height during the 2011-12 school year, Tahoe Valley Elementary has seen an increase.

In order to fund all of the free and reduced lunches (as well as other programs), the school district gets basic funding and additional grants from different sources.

Bijou has an ongoing food drive to help out their students and families. STHS and STMS students have done food drives to help as well.

Page & Sage is a new program which supplies a backpack of food to identified students at South Tahoe Middle School. Each Friday, 20 students get a new book and food to help them over the holidays ad weekends when school lunches are not available.