If the Elk River School District is any indication, the nation's ailing job market isn't getting better yet.

The north suburban district is reporting that 400 more students than at the end of the 2008-09 school year are getting free and reduced-price lunches. Participation in the program, which is limited to low-income families, is often used as a measure of a school's poverty rate.

In Elk River, the 2,490 students in the program represent 20 percent of the student body, as opposed to 18 percent last year, said Julee Miller, director of food services for Elk River schools. A breakdown of that total shows 1,675 getting free lunch and 815 paying reduced prices.

Officials first noticed the uptick last school year, when almost 200 more students were admitted to the programs during the first few months of 2009. That was as the nation teetered on the brink of economic collapse. At that time, Elk River Superintendent Mark Bezek characterized the district as "a poster child for this whole mortgage debacle," and home foreclosures zoomed in Wright and Sherburne counties, from which Elk River draws many of its students.

But district officials were also convinced that many residents who merited free and reduced lunches for their children either didn't know about the program or didn't take part because of the stigma of poverty attached to it. The district ramped up its effort to spread the word and continues to do so.

"We've got the feeling that there have been a lot of layoffs, and we wanted to catch those people's attention," Miller said. "We want to get it fresh in their minds that this is an option available. We have posters going up in the schools, and in Web newsletters that are going out to families." A powerful incentive is the assurance that participation in the program is confidential.

That might account for some of the additional families signing up. Miller said, however, that it also appears that layoffs are continuing to swell the ranks of the economically stressed and the number of kids who are getting free and reduced-price lunches.

"From what we're seeing, it's more layoffs," Miller said. "More layoffs are coming, which is why they're qualifying for free and reduced benefits. ... We've been seeing a steady flow, and this week has been busy. Another four families called just last Monday saying that somebody got laid off." The phenomenon is districtwide, with no particular part of it affected more than any other.

The state Department of Education has not yet compiled district-by-district free-and-reduced lunch totals for the current school year. Statewide, 33 percent of public school students are on free and reduced lunch. That's the same percentage as last year, and one percentage point higher than in 2007-2008. But in Anoka-Hennepin schools, the number of kids on free and reduced lunch rose from 9,280 last year to the current 10,207, despite an overall decline in enrollment, according to district figures.

Miller noted occasional successes; parents get their jobs back or start making enough money to take them above the threshold for participating in the free and reduced lunch program. But that number is dwarfed by the number going in the opposite direction. Many of those parents are experiencing the ravages of poverty for the first time.

Said Miller: "We get the sense that this is a new occurrence in their homes, that they're scrambling and trying to find all the resources available to help them out financially."

Norman Draper • 612-673-4547