Universal School Meals
The progress we've made and have yet to make.
With school summer vacations underway and food prices nearly 10% higher than they were a year ago, many families with children are facing a hard summer (and subsequent school year) ahead. On June 30th (tomorrow) the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) child nutrition waivers — the ones that made school meals free for all students, regardless of income — will expire.
A brief summary of Child Nutrition Waivers
The federal waivers were introduced in 2020 when it became clear that the pandemic had significantly disrupted school meal participation rates. They made it easier and less costly for school nutrition programs to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students, expanded the scope and coverage of the USDA’s program to provide free meals during summer breaks (the Seamless Summer Option), and facilitated the support of government agencies and nonprofit organizations. In sum, they prevented a lot of kids (an estimated 30 million) from going hungry as they and their families dealt with the other uncertainties caused by the pandemic.
Unfortunately, despite efforts by some members of Congress to introduce a more permanent Universal School Meals Program Act last spring, after June 30th in most states the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) will once again function the way it did before the pandemic. In other words, it will single out low-income students, requiring their families to apply for the program — using sensitive information — and school administrators to devote substantial resources toward operating it. And this has many schools, advocacy groups, organizations, parents, and like-minded individuals concerned.
Room for improvement
At their core, “healthy school meals” are, as Robert Harvey, President of FoodCorps, puts it: “a justice imperative”. They ensure that students are on equal footing nutritionally, and that they feel a sense of belonging within their school community. But the NSLP, according to Bettina Elias Siegel (author of Kid Food: The Challenge of Feeding Children in a Highly Processed World), has a history of failing at these nutritional and mental health objectives, and therein lies a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If parents and students deem school meals to be nutritionally deficient and socially stigmatizing, they certainly have much less incentive to even opt in to a subsidized meal program to begin with. That was the case pre-pandemic, as Siegel points out, when students on a NSLP plan didn’t want their peers to know they couldn’t afford lunch. It has also been the case during the pandemic, according to Virginia Sole-Smith (author of the Burnt Toast newsletter and podcast), largely because of parents’ concerns over the nutritional value of school meals.
But if families don’t participate in a free meal program, as Sole-Smith points out, lawmakers and other relevant policy stakeholders have much less incentive to expand and enhance it. The question is then: how do we improve access to free school meals while simultaneously making the program more inclusive and the meals more nutritious? Universal school meals was and continues to be one of the best solutions.
It is true that the pandemic and supply-chain issues have caused school cafeterias to lean a bit more on processed foods. However it’s also worth noting that, on the whole, school meals have become more nutritious over the past decade thanks to the Obama era Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Additionally, farm to school programs are becoming more prevalent across the country. And there are efforts underway to provide schools with more nutritionally dense food products, like freshly-milled whole grain flours and more plant-based meals.
You can make an impact
For these programs and efforts associated with nutritious school meals to have any footing going forward though, we need to activate. Whether you have kids in school or not, you can send the right message to your elected officials — at the state and federal level — encouraging them to make universal free school meals a priority. You can also support the organizations and programs that are advocating for and providing alternatives to free school meals.
Additionally, those of you with school-aged children in California and Maine can show your support by participating in your state’s newly-adopted universal free meal programs. Similarly, in Vermont your participation in free school meals will be critical this coming year as legislators deliberate on how best to fund a permanent program. And for those of you in Massachusetts, New York, Colorado, and Minnesota, any advocacy work you can do to advance proposed universal school meal legislation will certainly have an impact.
Beyond those few states, there’s much more work to do. By raising awareness, speaking up, and actively participating, we can all help ensure America’s children have access to the food they need to stimulate learning and healthy development.
Well presented common sense, Charlotte.