Tulsa - More Tulsa students are eating lunch for free. That's because schools are doing a better job of finding out which kids need them the most. One way is through something called "direct certification".

This year, seven new schools universal feeding sites. That means regardless how much families makes kids receive free lunch and free breakfast.

At Newcomer Elementary, 90-percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. And 99-percent of their parents filled out the free lunch application.

"Some of them be so hungry that you want to give them more," says Kay Carter. "You just give them the amount to eat. And they just be happy. Just happy to get it to receive it."

Kay has seen disappointed faces of kids who didn't have lunch money. This year, for the first time, Tulsa Public Schools used zip codes to help locate families already receiving state assistance.

"The advantage in using direct certification is that the parent doesn't have to fill out the paperwork," says Kitt Hines. "So that's why encourage using the direct certification. That's one of the twelve thousand pieces of paper that we don't have to handle."

So far this year, 12-thousand students were automatically signed up for the lunch program.

"They're probably getting food stamps or they are on some type of federal subsidy program and that's why they qualify because they meet also the same income standards for free and reduced."

They have been aggressively signing up families, hoping to reach universal status like 42 other schools, including Newcomer.

"Everybody can eat," says Kay. "And that just makes me feel good. That nobody's hungry."

In Tulsa Public Schools, not sure how many students receive free and reduced lunch. They're waiting for those numbers to come in sometime next week.

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