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free school meals
Public Education Is Free to All Students. Now Do Their Lunch
It's outrageous that we ensure taxpayer-funded public classrooms and teacher salaries as well as roads, parks, libraries, firefighters, paramedics, and more, but draw the line at something for our kids to eat in the middle of the day.
Oct 29, 2023
During the pandemic, the government embarked on a beautiful experiment: expanding public programs to stave off poverty. One critical component was ensuring that public school students had free lunches regardless of family income.
During the 2020-2021 school year, 98 percent of all school lunches were free to students. All of a sudden, public schools were allowed to treat the idea of feeding students to be as essential as educating them.
These pandemic-era programs — which also included a monthly Child Tax Credit, a pause in student loan repayments, and expansions of SNAP and Medicaid — not only kept people from falling into deep poverty but actually led to a record reduction in poverty levels.
But as those programs expire, poverty is rising again. And with an end to federally funded free school lunches, kids living in the world’s richest nation will go hungry again.
Republicans say they would cut federal funding for school lunches altogether, declaring it a priority for 2024. In this dystopian worldview, kids don’t have an unconditional right to food.
When the temporary free lunch program that fed 50 million students ended in June 2022, participation in school meal programs plummeted and income-based qualifications for free meals resumed. Public school meal debt has ballooned to $262 million per year, with an estimated 30.4 million students unable to pay for their meals.
Shameful stories abound.
For example, Donovan Elementary School in Lebanon, Ohio, announced “Ice Cream Friday,” a fun activity that expressly excluded students with debt. “If a student has a negative balance they will not be able to purchase an ice cream even if they bring their $1,” the school said. “Students are only allowed to purchase [one] ice cream and are not permitted to buy an ice cream for a friend.”
“Just give the kids ice cream!!!” one person replied to the school on Facebook. “The part that kids can’t buy ice cream for their friends is disgusting.”
At a district in Philadelphia, sixth through 12th graders in debt will no longer be fed at school. Among the impacted parents is a single mother of three who cannot pay off her kids’ $400 lunch debt. In North Carolina, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District has nearly $500,000 in unpaid school lunch debts.
Even in school districts where meals are free for low-income families, there is a deep stigma when kids are singled out. There are horror stories of “lunch shaming,” such as kids forgoing meals in order to not be outed as too poor to pay out-of-pocket.
Additionally, according to one analysis, many kids “are part of families who earn too much to be considered for free or reduced lunch, but also earn too little to afford regular school meals.”
This is outrageous. We ensure taxpayer-funded public classrooms and teacher salaries as well as roads, parks, libraries, firefighters, paramedics, and more. None of these have income or work-based requirements. They’re free at the point of use for everyone.
But we draw the line at school lunches?
Republicans say they would cut federal funding for school lunches altogether, declaring it a priority for 2024. In this dystopian worldview, kids don’t have an unconditional right to food. But some Democratic-run states actually learned from the federal government’s pandemic experiment.
California’s Department of Education this year boasted about being “the first state to implement a statewide Universal Meals Program for school children.” Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont have implemented similar programs.
“‘School lunch debt’ is a term so absurd that it shouldn’t even exist,” declared Senator John Fetterman (D-PA). Fetterman’s federal School Lunch Debt Cancelation Act would direct the Department of Agriculture to pay off all school meal debts.
But it isn’t enough to pay off the debt once. Modeled on California’s approach, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) Universal School Meals Program Act would permanently offer free meals for all kids with no income restriction.
I asked my 16-year-old son, who attends a public school in California, how he would respond if kids at his school were required to pay for meals. “That would be pretty dumb,” he said. He’s right. It’s that simple.
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'Just Feed Our Children': Minnesota Gov. Offers Unequivocal Defense of Universal Free School Meals
"The haves and the have-nots in the school lunchroom is not a necessary thing," said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Aug 17, 2023
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday offered an unwavering defense of his state's recently enacted universal free school meals program, arguing that Republican efforts to means-test the initiative would have created burdensome and needless administrative barriers.
"The haves and the have-nots in the school lunchroom is not a necessary thing. Just feed our children," Walz, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, said during a press conference.
Minnesota's free school meals program, which took effect on July 1, provides breakfast and lunch for free to K-12 students whose schools participate in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.
The meals are provided regardless of a student's family income. One anti-hunger campaigner described the program as "a lunchbox tax cut—it gives money back to families."
Local advocates
estimate that roughly 17% of Minnesota children are food-insecure, and many did not previously qualify for means-tested school meal assistance.
Republicans
largely opposed the creation of the free lunch and breakfast program, which grew out of a federally funded school meals initiative launched during the coronavirus pandemic.
Some Minnesota Republicans pushed for income-based restrictions on eligibility for free school meals,
claiming that it "doesn't make sense" to provide no-cost meals to students whose families can afford to pay.
But Walz rejected that argument during Wednesday's press conference.
"Isn't that rich. Our Republican colleagues were concerned there would be a tax cut for the wealthiest," said Walz. "The fact of the matter is that the programs of getting food to our children as easily as possible has always been a priority."
"We know there's a lot of families—it's hard, they send you tons of paperwork, you're struggling, you're doing work, you're doing all that," Walz added, referring to the income verification process and other hoops families previously had to jump through to qualify their children for free school meals. "This was meant to make it as easy as possible knowing that it's a benefit for all of them."
Minnesota is one of
several states that have moved to enact their own free school meal programs following the lapse of emergency federal funding.
Late last month, Massachusetts lawmakers approved a budget that requires public schools to provide all K-12 students with free meals—a program funded by revenue from the state's tax on millionaires.
"Free universal school meals are now the law of the land in Massachusetts," U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) wrote Wednesday. "Congress must follow suit and pass the Universal School Meals Program Act to make this a reality for every child in America."
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'Will Literally Change Lives': Massachusetts Legislature Approves Universal Free School Meals
"Congress must follow suit and make this a reality for every child who calls America home," said U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
Aug 01, 2023
The Massachusetts Legislature on Monday approved a budget proposal that requires the state's public schools to provide all K-12 students with free meals, making permanent a highly successful pandemic-era program.
Maura Healey, the state's Democratic governor, is expected to sign the budget into law, which would make Massachusetts the eighth U.S. state to make universal free school meals permanent—joining California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Vermont, and Michigan.
"We would not be where we are today without the voices and activism of thousands of advocates and organizations, who made it clear that feeding our kids must be a statewide priority," Erin McAleer, president and CEO of the Massachusetts anti-hunger group Project Bread, said in a statement Monday. "We are grateful to all of our partners across the state and in the Legislature who enabled this victory."
Early in the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government approved waivers that allowed public schools across the U.S. to provide free school meals to all students. After federal funding expired last year amid GOP opposition, several states moved to establish free school meal programs financed by state dollars.
The proposed Massachusetts budget includes $171.5 million for the state's universal free school meal initiative.
School superintendents from across Massachusetts wrote in a June letter that they view universal free meals as "a needed part of education, not simply a nice add-on." Free school meals have been linked to a number of positive outcomes, including a decline in child hunger and better academic performance.
"Last year, the Legislature made the wise investment to extend school meals through the current school year in the FY2023 budget," the superintendents wrote. "Because of this extension, an additional 80,000 students ate lunch in October 2022 compared to October 2019 in schools not previously serving universal free meals."
"The promise of this country ought to be that no child ever goes hungry in any school."
U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), one of the most outspoken anti-hunger advocates in Congress, applauded the Massachusetts Legislature for making free school meals permanent and said the move "will literally change lives, full stop."
"No child in Massachusetts will ever have to wonder how to get through the school day on an empty stomach," said McGovern. "The promise of this country ought to be that no child ever goes hungry in any school."
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) echoed McGovern, saying in a statement that "Congress must follow suit and make this a reality for every child who calls America home."
"In one of the richest nations in the world, no child should ever go hungry, and including universal meals in schools is a step in the right direction towards addressing America's hunger crisis," Pressley said. "I'm grateful for the Massachusetts Legislature and to the advocates and organizers who fought relentlessly to make this possible."
In May, Pressley and McGovern joined other progressive lawmakers in introducing the Universal School Meals Program Act of 2023, a measure that would offer free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack to all students in preschool through high school.
The bill has yet to receive a vote in the House or the Senate.
A large group of House Republicans, meanwhile, has openly declared its opposition to free school meals.
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