Free Meals in Schools

Last year, a program that provided universal free meals to students during the COVID-19 pandemic expired. Between 2020 and 2021, the program reduced child hunger by over 2%, and in 2022, 80 million more meals were served by schools than in the year before the pandemic. As the cost of school meals returns, so does meal debt. Students who are unable to afford school meals will often not be denied food. Instead, the school will keep track of their "debt," and sometimes use tactics such as serving students in debt lower-quality meals in order to pressure families to pay. Currently, students in the U.S. owe a total of around $19 million in meal debt. While students may qualify for free or reduced meals, in some areas the percentage of students who do has dropped since before the pandemic. When the pandemic-era program expired, the threshold for getting free food was around 130% of the poverty line. In addition, the process to apply for free and reduced meals can be complex and act as an obstacle for families who might qualify. The sudden expiration of the free meal program exacerbated the issue, as some families were not aware they had to re-apply.

This issue has been brought to the fore again in the last week when Representatives Omar, McGovern, and Moore, and Senators Sanders, Gillibrand, and Heinrich, introduced the Universal School Meals Program Act of 2023. The legislation proposes free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack for all students from preschool through high school, including in the summer. It also incentivizes schools to use local ingredients and foods, as well as increasing funding to child and adult care facilities that provide meals. Finally, the bill would reimburse schools' meal debt and stop the pressure tactics used in debt collection.

I fully support free meals in schools for students, regardless of income level. First of all, I think it is a basic social justice issue: children (and all people) have the right to proper nutrition. Especially schools, which are meant to foster kids' growth and in which kids are required to spend a significant portion of their life, have a responsibility for their children's well-being. Not only is food security a health concern, but students also perform better academically on a full stomach. If we're not spending our money on food for children, what are we possibly spending it on? As Rep. McGovern said, "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."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Social Justice in Education

Education serves to help people understand the world around them and interact effectively with their society. To that end, I do not believe one's education can be complete without some understanding of social justice. Regardless of your identity or place in the world, topics of social justice shape everything from personal interactions to the opportunities you have. We are all participants in society, and social justice helps us understand the mechanisms of that society. For example, we might become aware of how our implicit biases inform our choices, or learn why certain laws and policies exist. To go one step further, knowing about these issues allows us to make decisions we believe in, and that can contribute positively to society. We might buy books from independent bookstores, or take public transportation more. Social justice is not just for career advocates or politicians. By its very nature, it is an important subject for everyone. In schools, I think social justice can be ...
Read more

Teacher Identity & the Classroom

A teacher's identity can impact a classroom in nearly infinite implicit and explicit ways. Let's go back to questions we discussed at the beginning of the semester: why is school important? What do we hope to get out of educational experiences? What makes a good teacher, and a good learning environment? Maybe the answers include factual information, or life skills, or curricula, or open-mindedness, or curiosity. Regardless of how you measure success, I think we can agree that teachers have a great impact on it. Stu dies have shown that students are more likely to score higher, develop interest in a subject, and stay in school if taught by someone with an identity -- such as race or gender -- similar to theirs. I can imagine many reasons this may be true. Someone with a similar background to you may also share a cultural background, and therefore may be able to get information across in a way that works with your worldview, understand the previous schooling you've had, or e...
Read more