Third time’s the charm? Lawmakers give federal universal free meals bill another go

Universal free school meal legislation was in the spotlight this past week. A handful of lawmakers at the federal level are trying again to pass a universal free meals bill, and a new law in Washington state will expand universal free meal access next school year. 

Here’s what you may have missed in K-12 nutrition legislation.

Bill seeks to feed every kid for free, and then some

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and a handful of other lawmakers are making another attempt to pass a federal universal free school meals bill. 

The Universal Free Meals Program Act of 2023 would provide free school breakfast and lunch to every public school student in the country. In addition, it would: raise the federal reimbursement rate for meals to $2.80 for breakfast and $4.63 for lunch and dinner; provide an incentive of up to $0.30 per meal for schools that procure at least 25% of their food from local suppliers; reimburse schools for all delinquent meal debt; get rid of the requirement that only communities where 50% of kids are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch can operate a summer food site; give families $60 per month per child in Summer EBT funds to use when school is not in session; and expand the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) by increasing the number of allowed meal services and eliminating the program’s two-tiered reimbursement rate, enabling child care providers to obtain the highest reimbursement rate regardless of income. 

“It is an international embarrassment that today, in the richest country in the history of the world, we are seeing record numbers of children and youth struggling with hunger on a daily basis,” said Sen. Sanders in a statement. “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. 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.”

This is not the first time Sen. Sanders and Rep. Omar have tried to make nationwide universal free meals a reality. They introduced a universal free meals bill in 2019 and another one in 2021. 

The School Nutrition Association (SNA) has long advocated for universal free meals and has also shown support for increasing the school meal reimbursement rate. In addition, the SNA recently announced its participation in the newly formed Healthy School Meals for All Coalition.  Made up of 18 organizations, the coalition’s aim is to advocate and build support for implementing universal free meals nationwide at schools. 

More school meal access coming to Washington 

A bill signed into law last week in Washington state will boost free meal access for students. House Bill 1238 requires elementary schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students starting next school year if 40% or more of their students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. It also requires elementary schools where between 30% and 40% of students qualify to provide universal free meals starting in the 2024-25 school year.

The original bill would have provided universal free meals to all 1.1 million public students in the state, but it was scaled back by lawmakers as it made its way through the House. 

See which states currently offer universal free meals via the map below: