The percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price school lunches inched down to about 40 percent this year, a sign that Ohio's economy has slightly improved but still not recovered from the Great Recession.
The one-point decline from the 2016-2017 school year continues the downward trend of recent years, according to data provided by the Ohio Department of Education.
School lunch participation remains stubbornly higher than the 36 percent it was in 2007 before the start of the economic downturn, reinforcing Ohio's sluggish recovery.
"We're moving in the right direction but we're still not where we were before the recession," said Howard Fleeter, a Columbus-based education analyst.
This year, 729,381 of Ohio's roughly 1.8 million students are eligible for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. That's nearly 18,000 fewer than last year, but still 4 out of every 10 students.
The number of qualifying students is widely considered a strong indicator of the level of poverty and the strength of the economy.
In Portage County, the overall percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch is 38 percent in 2017-18, slightly lower than the state average.
Fleeter said trends in school-lunch participation appear consistent with other economic indicators that deteriorated after the 2008-2009 recession, started to improve a few years ago, but are still worse than before the recession.
For instance, Ohio's poverty rate was 13 percent in 2007, peaked at 16 percent and has dropped to 14.6 percent. Likewise, median income was $46,597 in 2007, dropped to about $42,000 and has climbed back to $45,210, in 2007 dollars.
Food stamp enrollment was 9.5 percent before the recession, peaked at nearly 16 percent, and now stands at 13.7 percent.
Free lunches — and breakfasts where offered — are available to children in families with annual incomes less than 130 percent of the federal poverty level, or below $26,600 a year for a family of three. Reduced-price meals are available to students with household incomes up to 185 percent of the poverty rate — $37,777 a year for a family of three.
Earnings of 200 percent of the federal poverty rate are widely considered to be necessary for families to meet their basic needs.
The Columbus Dispatch calculated Ohio's free and reduced-priced lunch participation based on data provided by the Department of Education. The number could be somewhat inflated because once the percentage passes a certain threshold within a school, the entire school is deemed eligible for the aid, even though some children may reside in households that don’t qualify. For example, the entire Ravenna and Windham school districts offer subsidized lunches.
On the other hand, not all districts participate fully in the program, a factor that would make the numbers look better than they actually are.
Catherine Candisky is a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch. Record-Courier reporter Briana Barker contributed to this story.