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school lunch debt
Senate Dems Want to Cancel All Student Lunch Debt—A 'Term So Absurd That It Shouldn't Even Exist'
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman said the aim of the bill is to "stop humiliating kids and penalizing hunger."
Sep 25, 2023
As children across the United States have started a new academic year over the past month, many families have had to contend with federal lawmakers' refusal to guarantee universal free meals and the resulting "lunch shaming"—which three U.S. Senate Democrats hope to partially combat with new legislation to cancel student lunch debt nationwide.
"'School lunch debt' is a term so absurd that it shouldn't even exist," Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) declared in a statement Monday. "That's why I'm proud to introduce this bill to cancel the nation's student meal debt and stop humiliating kids and penalizing hunger."
"It's time to come together and stop playing political games with Americans' access to food," he added. "September is Hunger Action Month and I'm proud to be introducing this bill to help working families now, while we work to move our other priorities to combat food insecurity in our nation."
Fetterman—who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry's Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research—is leading the fight for the School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act with Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
"No child in Rhode Island—or anywhere in America—should be penalized for not being able to afford school lunch. It's that simple," asserted Whitehouse. "Our legislation will eliminate lunch debt in schools, supporting every child's access to a healthy meal and positioning them for long-term success."
Welch agreed, saying: "Our students shouldn't have to worry about how they're paying for lunch—full stop. I'm proud to partner with my colleagues Sen. Fetterman and Whitehouse on this commonsense bill, and urge my colleagues to stand with us."
Congress initially responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by enabling public schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to all 50 million children nationwide, but Republicans blocked the continuation that policy last year. Instead, lawmakers passed the Keep Kids Fed Act, a bipartisan compromise that increased federal reimbursement rates for programs serving low-income students. However, as Common Dreams reported in January, only around a quarter of districts that responded to a survey from the School Nutrition Association said those levels are sufficient, and 99.2% had concerns about raised rates expiring.
Further burdening American families trying to feed children amid food companies' price gouging, congressional Republicans and right-wing Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) also killed the pandemic-era expansion of the child tax credit—a move that contributed to the U.S. child poverty rate more than doubling in 2022 compared with the previous year, according to data released this month.
"Prior to the pandemic, some schools had resorted to tactics that embarrassed kids, such as stamping their hands to remind parents of unpaid bills and substituting cold cheese sandwiches for hot meals," Civil Eatsreported Monday. "Sometimes meals were thrown out in front of the children. And while experts say that fewer districts have resumed these practices—often dubbed 'lunch shaming'—they haven't gone away entirely either."
Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs at the Research and Action Center (FRAC), told the outlet, "Schools, families, and states really did not want to go back to having the complicated school nutrition operations where some kids have access to free meals and other kids do not, and they have to struggle with unpaid debt."
The families of almost half a million food insecure children in Pennsylvania collectively owe nearly $80 million in public school lunch debt, according to Fetterman's office. Nationally, more than 30 million kids can't afford their school meals and the total debt is $262 million annually.
California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont have all guaranteed universal free school meals, and Michigan and Nevada have programs in place for the 2023-24 school year. While lawmakers in other states are working to pass similar bills, advocates have called for federal legislation to ensure all schoolchildren are fed.
In addition to the new debt cancellation bill, Fetterman is among the co-sponsors of the Universal School Meals Program Act, reintroduced in May by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
"It is downright cruel that we are letting our children in America go hungry," Fetterman said at the time. "No child in America should be worried about if they are going to be able to get breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I am proud and honored to co-sponsor this bill that will finally make sure that our children are fed."
This post has been updated with the latest details about programs in Michigan and Nevada.
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Sanders, Omar Lead Charge to Ensure No Child Goes Hungry at School Again
"In the richest country in the history of the world, every child that does not have enough to eat is a policy failure and a moral outrage," said Rep. Jim McGovern, a co-sponsor of the Universal School Meals Program Act.
May 11, 2023
Demanding an end to the "international embarrassment" of childhood hunger in the world's wealthiest country, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday was among the lawmakers who introduced legislation to ensure all children in the United States have sufficient food at school without means-testing and stigmatizing those who rely on free meals.
Sanders (I-Vt.) was joined by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), and Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) in the House and Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) in the Senate in unveiling the Universal School Meals Program Act of 2023, eight months after the expiration of a pandemic-era program which offered meals at school to all students regardless of income.
The legislation would provide all students from preschool through high school with free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack, as well as incentivize schools to obtain food from local sources.
That pandemic-era program was credited with reducing hunger among children by more than 2% between 2020 and 2021, but was allowed to expire due to objections from Republican lawmakers, throwing nearly 30 million children back into a state of food insecurity.
"We cannot continue to prop up a grossly unjust economy in which the very rich get richer while millions of working families struggle to afford the most basic necessities of life, from paying for rent and medications to feeding their children," said Sanders. "Kids cannot learn if they are hungry and every child deserves a quality education free of hunger. What we've seen during this pandemic is that a universal approach to school meals works. We cannot go backwards. It is time for Congress to pass this legislation to ensure no student goes hungry again."
As inflation was rising last fall, due to means-testing, the expiration of the universal school meals program left students unable to access free food at school even if their household income was just above 130% of the poverty line—or $34,450 for a family of four.
"No child in America should be hungry—period, end of story," said McGovern on Thursday. "In the richest country in the history of the world, every child that does not have enough to eat is a policy failure and a moral outrage. We have a responsibility not just to teach kids reading and math, but to ensure they have healthy, nutritious food at school... Our kids deserve nothing less."
\u201cEvery child, including Elijah, deserves access to healthy, nutritious food at school.\n\nHunger is a political condition. And we can stop this policy failure in its tracks. It starts with universal free school meals.\u201d— Jim McGovern (@Jim McGovern) 1683820178
The legislation introduced would:
- Increase the reimbursement rate for school meals to cover the full cost of producing meals;
- Protect and promote small family farms to ensure local ingredients and learning opportunities for students;
- Provide summer meals for all children regardless of income; and
- Expand the Child and Adult Care Food Program, which currently provides reimbursements for meals to eligible children and adults at childcare centers and adult day care facilities, by allowing providers to receive the highest reimbursement rate regardless of a child or adult's income.
The bill also takes aim at the school meal debt crisis, in which families across the country "owe" a collective $19 million in school meal fees and which has led some school districts to use "lunch-shaming" tactics to collect debts. In 2019, public school students in Warwick, Rhode Island were told they would no longer receive hot meals and would instead be given sunflower-butter-and-jelly sandwiches if their families owed money, until their debts were paid off.
The legislation would put "an end to school lunch-shaming, including heinous scare tactics aimed at school meal debt collection," said Sanders' office, and would reimburse schools for all meal debt to end "the harassment of parents and students."
Omar noted that since she introduced the pandemic-era Maintaining Essential Access to Lunch for Students (MEALS) Act in 2020, five states have passed laws to provide universal school meals.
"No child should be forced to learn on an empty stomach," said the congresswoman. "Universal school meals is not just commonsense policy; it is also extremely popular. Nearly 75% of Americans support permanent universal school meals—including majority of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. It's time to listen to the demands of our constituents and at long last make school meals free and universal for all kids."
The bill is co-sponsored by 83 other lawmakers and has been endorsed by nearly 100 food, health, and education policy organizations.
"The Universal School Meals Program Act is a win for children, a win for parents, and a win for communities," said Crystal FitzSimons of the Food Research & Action Center. "It's not only doable, it's the right thing to do."
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Soaring School Lunch Debt Shows Need for Universal Free Meals
"Access to good nutrition should not depend on where a child lives or their family finances!" said one group.
Jan 11, 2023
Congress initially responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by enabling U.S. public schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to all 50 million children, but Republicans blocked a continuation of the program last summer—and now, districts and kids are suffering.
Halfway through the academic year, the nonprofit School Nutrition Association (SNA) on Wednesday released the results of a November survey that shows school meal programs are struggling with increasing costs, staff and menu item shortages, and unpaid charges.
"Congress has an opportunity to protect this critical lifeline."
Last June, Congress passed the Keep Kids Fed Act, bipartisan compromise legislation that increased the federal reimbursement rates for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) by 40 cents and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) by 15 cents for the 2022-23 school year.
However, only around a quarter of the 1,230 districts that responded to SNA's survey said those levels are sufficient, and 99.2% of them have moderate or serious concern about the raised rates expiring.
Additionally, a majority of districts that charge for meals said that the loss of the federal pandemic waiver enabling them to feed all students led to a rise in unpaid meal debt (96.3%), complaints and concerns from families (86.8%), administrative burden (86.5%), and stigma for low-income students (66.8%).
Over two-thirds of the districts reported unpaid meal debt collectively totaling $19.2 million. By district, debt ranged from just $15 to $1.7 million, but the median was $5,164.
\u201c.@SchoolLunch's 2023 survey shows that school nutrition programs are at a dangerous tipping point, facing rising costs, supply chain issues & labor shortages.\nAll schools should be able to offer free #HealthySchoolMeals to ensure all students are able to thrive. @urbanschoolfood\u201d— Devon Klatell (@Devon Klatell) 1673458391
A new position paper outlines SNA's primary recommendations:
- Make permanent the Keep Kids Fed Act reimbursement rates;
- Expand NSLP/SBP to offer healthy school meals for all students at no charge;
- Ensure the U.S. Department of Agriculture maintains current nutrition standards; and
- Reduce administrative and regulatory burdens.
"School meal programs are at a tipping point as rising costs, persistent supply chain issues, and labor shortages jeopardize their long-term sustainability," said SNA president Lori Adkins. "Congress has an opportunity to protect this critical lifeline by making reimbursement increases permanent and allowing us to offer free meals to ensure all students are nourished during the school day."
SNA is far from alone in demanding congressional action—though the dynamic on Capitol Hill is even more complicated now than it was last summer, since a divided Republican Party took narrow control of the U.S. House of Representatives last week.
\u201cRemember when we jumped up and down about universal school meals expiring and then the GOP blocked the extension because they wanted to nickel-and-dime a few mil & they were worried about those rich kids living large off the gov't Sloppy Joes? Yeah, well:\n\nhttps://t.co/Ldy3a9zjBy\u201d— Elliot Haspel (@Elliot Haspel) 1673444415
"We are experiencing cost increases in food, supplies, and labor like we have never seen before, and the meal reimbursement rate is not sufficient to cover the costs," Katie Wilson, executive director of the Urban School Food Alliance, a nonprofit created by school food service professionals, told The Washington Post, which reported on the SNA survey.
"We are witnessing large negative balances in schools since free meals have been discontinued," Wilson added, noting that some districts have started giving children with certain levels of debt alternate, lesser meals.
Highlighting that school meal policies vary by state and district, Wilson's organization
tweeted Wednesday that "access to good nutrition should not depend on where a child lives or their family finances!"
As USA Today—which also reported on SNA's survey Wednesday—detailed:
After pandemic-era waivers granting universal schools meal expired at the start of the school year, some states effectively extended them this school year, including Massachusetts, Nevada, Vermont, and Pennsylvania.
California, Maine, and now Colorado are the only states with laws ensuring permanent universal meal programs for all children, regardless of parents' income.
A few districts, including Chicago and New York City, also offer free meals to kids.
However, Donna Martin, nutrition director for the Burke County school district in Georgia, warned the Post that "doing universal school meals state by state is way too piecemeal and will ultimately leave needy students out."
"School districts are incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in school meal debt that the school districts' budgets—not school nutrition—will eventually have to cover," Martin stressed. "This takes dollars away from teaching and learning."
Elliot Haspel, author of Crawling Behind: America's Child Care Crisis and How to Fix It, said in a series of tweets Wednesday that "I, too, dislike the state-by-state approach. HOWEVER, given the political makeup of Congress, I think every state that can needs to be passing universal school meals (at solid reimbursement rates) during the '23 legislative session."
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