Bill would extend free breakfast and restart free lunch in Pennsylvania public schools
HARRISBURG, Pa. (KDKA) — Once nearly unheard-of, then nearly ubiquitous, two free meals per day would become the ongoing norm in Pennsylvania public schools if a Democratic proposal becomes law.
Families who currently owe money for past meals also would have that debt forgiven.
"Our K through 12 students, that is the primary way that they're getting nutrition, is at school," said state Rep. Emily Kinkead (D-Allegheny County). "So if we are obligating them to be at school, then we should be providing them with meals."
For the first two full school years of the pandemic, federal aid provided free breakfast and lunch for all Pennsylvania public school students. That ended in September 2022, but then-Governor Tom Wolf extended free breakfast through the current school year.
A few states have extended free school meals indefinitely.
As of now, Pennsylvania's 2023-24 school year would revert back to pre-pandemic rules, whereby based on their families' incomes, some students would be eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.
Kinkead said that would create two problems.
"There's a significant number of students that are food insecure and don't qualify for free and reduced lunch," she said. "So they're going to go back to a situation where maybe they're not able to eat lunch on a regular basis."
Plus, she said, during the pandemic, "The stigma around having a free lunch went away because everybody had free lunch, free breakfast. And so the idea of being on the free or reduced program, there was no distinction between students. Everybody was the same."
The bill has dozens of cosponsors, who are all Democrats. Democrats narrowly control the House, so they could pass the bill in that chamber without any GOP support. But they would need some Republican support in the Senate.
One senator said the end of federally-supported free meals for all isn't evidence that a new state initiative is needed – but rather, that it's not needed.
"If the Biden administration believes that these initiatives should be funded going forward, then it has the responsibility to provide the money to do so," state Sen. Scott Martin (R-Lancaster) wrote in an LNP op-ed Sunday and in a statement also provided to CBS News. "But the elimination of this funding is a clear signal that the administration feels the programs are no longer necessary."
Kinkead said the ongoing cost of her proposal would be about $465 million annually, or "basically 0.01% of our state's budget," which she said is money well spent to address food insecurity plus prevent people from having to access more expensive social programs they might need if they go hungry.
The bill would also provide a one-time $25 million to cancel families' school lunch debts.
"Any school districts that have students that owe money because they couldn't pay for lunch, this money would allow the state to compensate the school districts for that and allow the students to not have to pay that money back," Kinkead said.