'Free' school meals for students are rolling out in many states this year; how to pay for them remains a hurdle

States look to offer free meals for all students.
(CDC photo, Unsplash)

Several states have moved to ensure all students, regardless of income, are offered free, nutritious breakfasts or lunches at school, with some states providing both. "Eight states—California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont—have enacted permanent policies to provide free meals for all students," reports Daniel C. Vock of Route Fifty. "Nevada is doing so for at least this year. Pennsylvania is providing free school breakfasts for everybody. And Illinois lawmakers authorized universal meals but did not allocate the funding to provide them."

The waves of pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 highlighted how much families rely on school meals to feed their children. "For some children, school meals may be the only ones they get in a day," reports Cory Turner of NPR. In response, the Department of Agriculture moved to "forgo traditional, school-year paperwork to prevent child hunger. If a child wants a meal, that child gets a meal, and the school gets compensated by USDA whether that meal goes to an eligible student, a younger sibling or a kid from the nearby private school." But last year, the USDA reverted to applications and income eligibility requirements, leaving many families in a lurch--prices for food at home were up 13.5% in August 2022.

"Part of the reason for the nationwide push, said Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs for the Food Research & Action Center, is that schools saw the benefit of universal free meals during the pandemic," Vock writes. "The federal government paid school districts to offer free meals to students—regardless of income—for the school years that started in 2020 and 2021." FitzSimons told Vock: "Schools across the country last year had to go back to the way the school nutrition programs operated before the pandemic, and so many states did not want to go back to it."

Massachusetts just "rolled out full coverage for school meals," Vock reports. "The money for the Massachusetts expansion comes from a 4% income tax on millionaires that voters there approved last year. For other states, how to pay for free school meals remains a hurdle. Some school districts have been able to participate in the federal Community Eligibility Provision, a program where the federal government picks up the tab for meals for all students in low-income schools rather than on a student-by-student basis. . . . It cuts back the paperwork for school districts and doesn't require them to collect lunch fees."

Making sure school children are fed at school has broad public support and health benefits. FRAC research has found "receiving free or reduced-price school lunches reduces food insecurity, obesity rates, and poor health." Vock adds, "FitzSimons said free school meals remain popular with the public, with FRAC polling showing that 63% of voters support making free meals permanently available."