STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

More than 1,256 students in Blaine County—40 percent of the student population—qualify for Federal free or reduced school meals. Many more households struggle with food insecurity given the area’s extraordinarily high cost of living, but do not qualify because they make more than the federal income threshold of $41,000 per year for a family of four.

“The high cost of living in our valley forces parents to make impossible choices each day,” said Deb Van Law, BCEF’s executive director. “These are working families choosing between housing and groceries while keeping our local communities running. I’ve spoken personally to several parents who have full-time positions and as many as three additional jobs. We want to ease part of their burden by ensuring their students have enough to eat during the school day.”

BCEF made its initial three-year $250,000 commitment to help provide free school meals to more families in the fall of 2021. The Foundation expands the income eligibility to 150 percent of the federal poverty rate.

Over the 2023-2024 school year BCEF provided free meals to an additional 475 students.

“Hungry kids cannot learn. We are grateful to BCEF for ensuring that every student in Blaine County has access to breakfast and lunch,” said Blaine County School District Board member Lara Stone.

The School Meals program has received grants from the Hunger Coalition, Sun Valley Tour de Force, the Wood River Women’s Foundation, Nancy Eccles and Homer M. Hayward Family Foundation and local businesses and individuals. To learn more or to donate, go to https://www.supportbcef.org/.