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Since You Asked: Poverty rate is key to free school meals Monday Jan 30, 2017 at 12:01 AM Who decided that all schools in White City get free meals, while in Eagle Point, which is in the same School District 9, we have to pay $3.00 per meal. Not everyone in Eagle Point lives on the golf course. — Robert N., Eagle Point In 2015, 21.67 percent of students in the Eagle Point School District 9 lived at or below the federal poverty line, according the U.S. Census Bureau, and are most likely not living in close proximity to a golf course. In White City and Shady Cove, the poverty rate was so high that schools in those communities — Table Rock Elementary, Shady Cove School and White Mountain Middle School — qualified for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). Under this program, all students receive free breakfasts and lunches, explained Scott Whitman, Eagle Point’s director of business services. To be eligible for CEP, more than 40 percent of the families at a school must qualify for public assistance programs. At Table Rock Elementary, Shady Cove School and White Mountain, about 55 percent of families were accessing these programs, compared to about 35 percent of families at other schools in the district, Whitman said. Robert, you and any other families of Eagle Point students are encouraged to apply for free and reduced-price lunches, which take into account the size of your family and your annual income. The application is available at https://district.ode.state.or.us/apps/frlapp/default.aspx. Send questions to “Since You Asked,” Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by email to [email protected]. To see a collection of columns, go to mailtribune.com/youasked. We’re sorry, but the volume of questions received prevents us from answering all of them.