Congress approves free student meal extension through summer
2 years, 5 months ago

Congress approves free student meal extension through summer

Associated Press  

Congress passed a bill Friday that aims to keep up the expanded, pandemic-era distribution of free meals for all students this summer. “Our action today staves off a dangerous hunger cliff: ensuring universal free meals for all children throughout this summer, while helping schools keep up supply chain snags and rising costs for the upcoming school year,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, in a statement. The legislation is intended to extend the rules that were adopted soon after COVID-19 disrupted schools nationwide so that summer meal distribution sites could operate in any community with need, rather than just where there’s a high concentration of low-income children, and offer to-go meals. Advocates said the action in Congress will provide relief for families, but they are disappointed that the reduced-price lunch kids won’t get meals for free while families are struggling with soaring food and gas prices. Those families that are in that category oftentimes make a little bit too much money so that they can’t get assistance from different programs, now school meals, but they don’t make enough that they can cover basic necessities, so we’re putting those families in an awful position,” said Lisa Davis, senior vice president of Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign.

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History of this topic

How School Lunch Became A Symbol Of Tim Walz's Appeal To Voters
4 months ago

How School Lunch Became A Symbol Of Tim Walz's Appeal To Voters

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING Making school meals free for all students in Minnesota is one of Tim Walz’s signature achievements as governor. A voter survey published Wednesday by the Democratic polling firm Blueprint found free school lunch “is the only one of Walz’s most popular accomplishments surveyed that more than 40% of voters have heard about.” And it’s a major reason …

Breakfast and lunch programs in schools are helping families battling the cost of living
6 months, 3 weeks ago

Breakfast and lunch programs in schools are helping families battling the cost of living

ABC  

In a warehouse next to Adelaide Airport, four retired men are scurrying like ants. "It sort of introduces you to another world," said former Adelaide Crows football manager and volunteer John Reid. "When I come into the breakfast club all my worries go away because I've got people to talk to," she said. "Everyone right now is struggling with inflation, …

14 GOP-led states have turned down federal money to feed low-income kids in the summer. Here’s why
10 months, 1 week ago

14 GOP-led states have turned down federal money to feed low-income kids in the summer. Here’s why

Associated Press  

Lower-income families with school-age kids can get help from the federal government paying for groceries this summer, unless they live in one of the 14 states that have said no to joining the program this year. The reasons for the rejections, all from states with Republican governors, include philosophical objections to welfare programs, technical challenges due to aging computer systems …

14 GOP-led states turn down federal money to feed low-income kids in the summer. Here’s why
10 months, 1 week ago

14 GOP-led states turn down federal money to feed low-income kids in the summer. Here’s why

LA Times  

Jim Pillen, joined by state senators at the Capitol, announces the state will participate in a federal program to feed low-income children, reversing his previous opposition. But Food Research and Action Center, an advocacy group targeting hunger, has found that the main federally funded summer nutrition program doesn’t reach most qualified children. of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder said she turned …

Minnesota program to provide free school meals for all kids is costing the state more than expected
1 year ago

Minnesota program to provide free school meals for all kids is costing the state more than expected

Associated Press  

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota’s program to provide free school breakfasts and lunches to all students regardless of income is costing the state more than expected because of a jump in demand. Tim Walz signed the legislation last spring, advocates said the free meals would ease stresses on parents and help reduce childhood poverty while lifting the stigma on kids …

More students gain eligibility for free school meals under expanded US program
1 year, 2 months ago

More students gain eligibility for free school meals under expanded US program

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Millions of additional students in schools serving low-income communities will be eligible to receive breakfast and lunch at no cost under a rule change announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At schools where 25% of families participate in income-based public benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, the federal government now will cover the cost …

Schoolkids in 8 states can now eat free school meals, advocates urge Congress for nationwide policy
1 year, 3 months ago

Schoolkids in 8 states can now eat free school meals, advocates urge Congress for nationwide policy

Associated Press  

ST. PAUL, Minn. — When classes resume after Labor Day, Amber Lightfeather won’t have to worry about where her children’s next meals will be coming from. Minnesota, New Mexico, Colorado, Vermont, Michigan, and Massachusetts will make school breakfasts and lunches permanently free to all students starting this academic year, regardless of family income, following in the footsteps of California and …

Massachusetts joins a small but growing number of states adopting universal free school meals
1 year, 4 months ago

Massachusetts joins a small but growing number of states adopting universal free school meals

Associated Press  

BOSTON — Massachusetts has joined a small but growing number of states adopting universal free school meals programs. About $172 million in permanent funding is also included in the budget to provide universal school meals for public school students in kindergarten through high school. Healey called the school lunch program “an investment in childhood nutrition that’s also removing a source …

College students struggling with hunger face potential loss of food stamp benefits
1 year, 5 months ago

College students struggling with hunger face potential loss of food stamp benefits

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Raised on welfare by his grandmother, Joseph Sais relied so much on food stamps as a college student that he thought about quitting school when his eligibility was revoked. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sais said, he missed an “important letter” and temporarily lost his eligibility in SNAP, the foundational anti-poverty program commonly known as food …

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Vermont schools say there should be for kids
1 year, 8 months ago

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Vermont schools say there should be for kids

NPR  

There's no such thing as a free lunch. toggle caption Ximena Bustillo/NPR "Schools are struggling to get kids certified for free or reduced-price school meals," FitzSimons said. Sponsor Message For the upcoming 2023-2024 school year, a family of four cannot make more than $55,500 a year for reduced-price meals or $39,000 for free meals, according to the federal standards. A …

Free school lunch works — but rightwingers don’t care about outcomes
1 year, 8 months ago

Free school lunch works — but rightwingers don’t care about outcomes

Raw Story  

“If a child is on the verge of starvation, you must call CPS, not spend hundreds of millions on disproportionately unhealthy lunches, a huge percentage of which are discarded,” conservative pundit Ben Shapiro told California Congressman Ted Lieu on Twitter. There’s a great deal of evidence that free school lunches reduce student hunger and improve children’s health. School lunches have …

Food for thought: Free meals for all New Mexico students
1 year, 8 months ago

Food for thought: Free meals for all New Mexico students

Associated Press  

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday signed legislation to provide free school meals to all students regardless of family income, as New Mexico and several other states look to fill the gap left by lapsed federal pandemic-era benefit programs and address the strain to family budgets caused by food prices. About 67% — or 309,000 New Mexico …

“Poverty is a policy choice”: Minnesota kids cheer new law guaranteeing free school lunch for all
1 year, 9 months ago

“Poverty is a policy choice”: Minnesota kids cheer new law guaranteeing free school lunch for all

Salon  

This article originally appeared at Common Dreams. But 1 in 4 food-insecure kids live in households that don't qualify for the federal free and reduced meal program, leading to "mounting school lunch debts in the tens of thousands of dollars," Minnesota Public Radioreported. "As a former teacher, I know that providing free breakfast and lunch for our students is one …

Massachusetts governor seeks to extend free school meals
1 year, 9 months ago

Massachusetts governor seeks to extend free school meals

Associated Press  

BOSTON — A pilot program in Massachusetts offering universal school meals would be extended through the end of the 2023-2024 school year as part of a supplemental budget proposal filed Friday by Gov. The move comes as states have grappled with the end of a pandemic-era federal aid program that made school meals available for free to all public school …

Minnesota Senate backs free school meals for all students
1 year, 9 months ago

Minnesota Senate backs free school meals for all students

Associated Press  

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Lunches and breakfasts would be free to Minnesota students regardless of income under a bill that won approval in the state Senate on Tuesday. “Being hungry makes learning almost impossible,” said Democratic Sen. Heather Gustafson, of Vadnais Heights, the lead author, who is also a teacher. “This is a bill that will ensure every student, K …

'Such cowards': GOP blasted over bill targeting food aid for the poor
1 year, 9 months ago

'Such cowards': GOP blasted over bill targeting food aid for the poor

Raw Story  

More than a dozen House Republicans are expected to release legislation Tuesday that would impose more harsh work requirements on certain recipients of federal food aid, a clear signal that the GOP intends to target nutrition assistance in critical debt ceiling, budget, and farm bill talks. Dusty Johnson, the measure would "expand the age bracket for able-bodied recipients without dependents, …

‘It’s hard to focus': Schools say American kids are hungry
1 year, 9 months ago

‘It’s hard to focus': Schools say American kids are hungry

Associated Press  

PHOENIX — America’s schools say kids are hungry — just as pandemic-era benefit programs have lapsed. School cafeterias typically don’t turn away a hungry kid, but debts for unpaid school meals have been rising — showing the level of need, and raising questions about how schools will keep feeding everyone, without federal money to do it. The neediest kids are …

How school lunch is made. It’s more complicated than you think
1 year, 11 months ago

How school lunch is made. It’s more complicated than you think

LA Times  

At precisely 11:35 a.m. on a recent Friday, hundreds of kids with backpacks slung over their shoulders file through the blue and red doors of the Garfield High School lunchroom in East Los Angeles. At Los Angeles’ Garfield High School, students choose their own lunch items from a display case. “It’s constant, but we’re a well-oiled machine,” says the high …

UK cost-of-living woes stir push for more free school meals
2 years ago

UK cost-of-living woes stir push for more free school meals

Associated Press  

BIRMINGHAM, England — As the school bell rings, dozens of children begin filing into the canteen at Hillstone Primary School. During the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Food Foundation and soccer star Marcus Rashford persuaded Britain’s government to provide free meals to children in poverty over the school holidays. The Department of Education said the government understands …

Children unable to afford lunch in more than half of state schools, survey says
2 years ago

Children unable to afford lunch in more than half of state schools, survey says

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It’s a scandal that in …

Families on free school meals face ‘patchwork’ support over October half-term
2 years, 2 months ago

Families on free school meals face ‘patchwork’ support over October half-term

The Independent  

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Struggling families …

Number of children arriving at school hungry on the rise, teachers warn
2 years, 2 months ago

Number of children arriving at school hungry on the rise, teachers warn

The Independent  

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The number of children arriving at school hungry has risen …

Next stress for many parents: First school lunch bills since 2020
2 years, 3 months ago

Next stress for many parents: First school lunch bills since 2020

CNN  

CNN — Though East Hampton is a solidly middle-class town in Connecticut, dozens of families are applying for free school meals for the first time as they contend with high food costs and tight budgets. They are also trying to make sure that those who do qualify for free or reduced-price meals submit applications, which parents haven’t had to do …

Hunger advocates want free school meals for all kids. It's tough sell in Congress
2 years, 3 months ago

Hunger advocates want free school meals for all kids. It's tough sell in Congress

NPR  

Hunger advocates want free school meals for all kids. It's tough sell in Congress Enlarge this image toggle caption Morgan Lee/AP Morgan Lee/AP When the government made school meals temporarily free to virtually all public school students in 2020, the intent was to buffer children and families from the spike in hunger and economic hardship caused by the pandemic. States …

Dinner lady forced to deny children school food because ‘there’s no money’
2 years, 3 months ago

Dinner lady forced to deny children school food because ‘there’s no money’

The Independent  

Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. …

The U.S. diet is deadly. Here are 7 ideas to get Americans eating healthier
2 years, 3 months ago

The U.S. diet is deadly. Here are 7 ideas to get Americans eating healthier

NPR  

The U.S. diet is deadly. Treat food as medicine There's a growing movement to integrate food and nutrition into health care, by providing healthy meals and groceries to patients to help prevent or manage diet-related illness.The task force wants to see this kind of work expand. "Produce prescription programs help improve diet quality and food security," says task force member …

As students go back to school, many face a lunch bill for the first time in 2 years
2 years, 3 months ago

As students go back to school, many face a lunch bill for the first time in 2 years

NPR  

As students go back to school, many face a lunch bill for the first time in 2 years Enlarge this image toggle caption Lisa Rathke/AP Lisa Rathke/AP BOISE, Idaho — Lunchtime on the first day of school at Mountain View Elementary earlier this month brought the familiar bustle of students scurrying to find their assigned table in the cafeteria while …

Proposal for student cards to cover free meals fails in California Legislature
2 years, 4 months ago

Proposal for student cards to cover free meals fails in California Legislature

LA Times  

A bill that would have granted eligible California school children an EBT card to cover meals in the summer quietly failed in the state Legislature last week. A bill that would have granted electronic benefit transfer cards to low-income schoolchildren to cover meals when class is not in session quietly failed last week in the state Legislature. Food banks across …

Free for all California public school students: At least two meals a day
2 years, 4 months ago

Free for all California public school students: At least two meals a day

LA Times  

Students walk into their first day of school at Sunkist Elementary School in Anaheim on Aug. 11. Students at public schools across California can continue to receive at least two free meals a day at school this academic year, thanks to a state initiative launched during the pandemic. Under California’s Universal Meals Program, all public school students in grades transitional …

Families ‘face grim choices’ as summer holidays mean weeks without free school meals
2 years, 5 months ago

Families ‘face grim choices’ as summer holidays mean weeks without free school meals

The Independent  

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, …

Families brace for changes to pandemic-era free school meals
2 years, 5 months ago

Families brace for changes to pandemic-era free school meals

Associated Press  

ESSEX, Vt. — Before the pandemic, there was no room in the budget for Kate Murphy’s children to buy lunch at school. So the free school meals that were made available to students nationwide amid the crisis have brought welcome relief, especially since her husband lost his job last year at a bakery company that closed. The pandemic-era federal aid …

Biden signs the school meal waivers bill into law, but free meals are over for many
2 years, 6 months ago

Biden signs the school meal waivers bill into law, but free meals are over for many

NPR  

Biden signs the school meal waivers bill into law, but free meals are over for many Enlarge this image toggle caption Damian Dovarganes/AP Damian Dovarganes/AP President Joe Biden signed the Keep Kids Fed Act on Saturday morning, extending partial school meal flexibilities through the next school year five days before they were set to expire. The House on Friday morning …

School meal waivers expire in 9 days. After axing them, Congress may try to save them
2 years, 6 months ago

School meal waivers expire in 9 days. After axing them, Congress may try to save them

NPR  

School meal waivers expire in 9 days. After axing them, Congress may try to save them Enlarge this image toggle caption Paul Sakuma/AP Paul Sakuma/AP A bipartisan group of four lawmakers on Tuesday announced a bill that would extend the school meal waivers that have been a lifeline for schools and families during the pandemic. "With 90% of our schools …

‘Four chips on a plate’: Boost school meal funding, ministers told, as children ‘getting smaller portions’
2 years, 6 months ago

‘Four chips on a plate’: Boost school meal funding, ministers told, as children ‘getting smaller portions’

The Independent  

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. I’m looking at cheaper alternatives.” A headteacher from North Yorkshire, Matt Davies, said that schools …

The Impending School Lunch Disaster
2 years, 8 months ago

The Impending School Lunch Disaster

Slate  

There’s a vast, underappreciated supply chain that provides for your kids’ school lunches. Helena Bottemiller Evich, a senior food and agriculture reporter at Politico, says that school administrations are “really upset” about these lunch adjustments expiring, and everyone’s unsure of what to do next. Mary Harris: Before the pandemic, I remember hearing all these stories about school lunch debt—kids who …

Millions of children will miss healthy school meals when pandemic relief expires
2 years, 9 months ago

Millions of children will miss healthy school meals when pandemic relief expires

NPR  

Millions of children will miss healthy school meals when pandemic relief expires Enlarge this image toggle caption Karen Ducey/Getty Images Karen Ducey/Getty Images When schools pivoted to virtual learning early in the pandemic, the National School Lunch Program was thrown into chaos. And as part of pandemic relief legislation, the federal Food and Nutrition services agency waived the requirement that …

Free school meals for all children can improve kids’ health
3 years, 4 months ago

Free school meals for all children can improve kids’ health

Salon  

Recognizing that millions of U.S. children are at risk of hunger, Maine and California have approved funding to offer free school meals to all students within their state. The Universal School Meals Program Act would provide free healthy meals and snacks to all children in public and nonprofit private schools regardless of income. When children return to schools in the …

California launches largest free school lunch program in U.S.
3 years, 5 months ago

California launches largest free school lunch program in U.S.

LA Times  

When classrooms in California reopen for the fall term, all 6.2 million public school students will have the option to eat school meals for free, regardless of their family’s income. It’s beyond life-changing,” said Erin Primer, director of food services for the San Luis Coastal Unified School District on California’s Central Coast. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the state’s …

California launches largest free school lunch program in US
3 years, 5 months ago

California launches largest free school lunch program in US

Associated Press  

SAN FRANCISCO — When classrooms in California reopen for the fall term, all 6.2 million public school students will have the option to eat school meals for free, regardless of their family’s income. It’s beyond life-changing,” said Erin Primer, director of food services for the San Luis Coastal Unified School District on California’s central coast. The Los Angeles Unified School …

Maine to make school meals free for all students
3 years, 5 months ago

Maine to make school meals free for all students

Associated Press  

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine has announced plans to continue offering free meals to students for the 2022-23 school year and beyond. “It really makes sure every child who needs that meal and who depends on school meals gets those meals.” According to the Maine Department of Education, 38% of students, or 65,000 students, qualify for free or reduced meals. Child …

Hungry children didn’t drive this country into the ground – they deserve so much better than the meagre food parcels offered by our government
3 years, 11 months ago

Hungry children didn’t drive this country into the ground – they deserve so much better than the meagre food parcels offered by our government

The Independent  

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Midday assistants on furlough or poverty …

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