From Your Neighbors

Some families qualify for free or reduced price school meals and never apply. Not because they don't care, but because nobody told them they could, or that the income thresholds are higher than most people expect. Here's exactly who qualifies, what documents you need, why the application is confidential, and why completing it helps your school too.

Cherokee County, GA has a median household income of over $108,000. On paper, school meal debt shouldn't exist here. But it does, and the reasons go far beyond income. From cash flow gaps to broken notification systems to a July application window many families miss, here are seven reasons meal debt is a systems problem, not a poverty problem.