A dramatic increase is reported in the number of California students now automatically eligible to receive free meals in K-12 schools. The State Department of Education attributes the 32-percent spike to modifications to the process of matching federal participation data in CalFresh and CalWorks with state data and student-level data. But it’s only a 13-percent increase in Nevada County, ranking 47th out of the 58 counties. Meanwhile, the Food Services Director for the Grass Valley School District, Suzanne Graff, says HER eligibility numbers have been fairly flat, or around 55-percent. But she says participation is up, thanks to a recent change in requirements…

click to listen to Suzanne Graff

The 13-percent increase adds another 17-hundred-35 eligible students, among the county’s 12-thousand students…

click to listen to Suzanne Graff

Statewide, the additional 329-thousand eligible students brings total eligibility for free school meals to about 1-point-3 million.