Should school lunches be free for all? A pandemic experiment.
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Nick Roll Staff writer
| SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, OHIO
It鈥檚 5 p.m. on a Tuesday, and Cathy McNair and a few student volunteers are ready to go. They鈥檝e wheeled out a couple dozen boxes of pre-packaged meals 鈥� some donated and some from the school鈥檚 food services provider聽鈥� to the Finneytown Secondary Campus parking lot in suburban Cincinnati.
High school and middle school students here are attending class on a hybrid model 鈥� partially in person, partially remote. But students need to eat regardless, so the questions arise: If they鈥檙e not getting their meals at school, how are they getting them? Are they getting them?
Ms. McNair, the school social worker, and her team set up shop multiple times a week to hand out free school meals to anyone who wants them. Parents pull up, drive-thru style, to maintain social distancing.聽
Why We Wrote This
Long involved in fighting childhood hunger, public schools are providing free meals this year 鈥� regardless of family income. The unplanned experiment offers clues about what works. Third in a series about hunger in America.
鈥淚 love it. I absolutely love it,鈥� says Christina, a mother of four, who asks that her last name be withheld in order to feel comfortable talking about her family鈥檚 financial situation. Without the meals, she says, 鈥渋t would be a lot more stressful. A lot more of me monitoring 鈥� 鈥楢lright, you can have this much milk today.鈥欌��
Despite myriad programs 鈥� free and reduced-price school breakfasts, lunches, and after-school meals, as well as benefits like SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) 鈥� in the United States lived in 鈥渇ood insecure鈥� homes before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the advocacy group No Kid Hungry. Amid predictions that number could reach 18 million during the pandemic, restrictions on how poor a family had to be to qualify for free school meals were lifted 鈥� opening up the program to all.
Since March 2020, schools across the country have been ground zero in a massive, accidental experiment in universal free meals.聽
The results aren鈥檛 perfect, advocates say, but it鈥檚 opened up new ground in a debate on how to make sure each American child has enough to eat every day.聽
As a result of the expansion of the meal programs, advocates say, working poor people can now get the help they need, and families don鈥檛 feel singled out for receiving free meals. After more than a year under this聽temporary system, some are seeing a new, permanent path emerging for universal free school meals.
Others see a new entitlement creeping up in place of a targeted poverty-reduction program and want to return to the previous system if the expansion expires in September as planned. In the meantime, all public school children 鈥� in one of the world鈥檚 wealthiest nations 鈥� are for the first time experiencing equal access to food, no questions asked.
鈥淧ersonally, I think it would be great if we had food, and if kids wanted food, they got food,鈥� says Ms. McNair. At the Tuesday meal distribution, she spots a student leaving an extracurricular activity and asks if he wants a meal. He hesitates at first, but takes one. Without missing a beat, Ms. McNair asks him, 鈥淛ust one? Do you have siblings at home?鈥�
Stigma-free food or undue entitlement?
In a normal year, free or reduced-price school meals were a lifeline for students from low-income families. Schools 鈥� or the companies they contract with to provide food 鈥� could get reimbursed by the federal government for the free and reduced-price meals they offered. But there was a strict income threshold for eligibility.
For Christina and her family, who have depended on free school lunches off and on over the years, lifting the eligibility requirements also lifted a huge mental burden as she and her husband faced unemployment and underemployment amid the pandemic鈥檚 devastating economic toll.聽
鈥淭丑别re鈥檚 a stigma behind a free lunch,鈥� says Christina, picking up her meals at the Finneytown Secondary Campus. 鈥淪ome kids are embarrassed that they鈥檙e on that free lunch. And so, with everybody having it, there鈥檚 not that stigma behind it.鈥�
Her family certainly isn鈥檛 alone.
The pre-pandemic eligibility rules inevitably meant some students weren鈥檛 getting the assistance they needed. Gerry Levy, nutrition services director for several Cincinnati-area school districts, rattles off examples: children of working poor people who made just a bit too much money to be eligible, those who can鈥檛 read English and didn鈥檛 turn in the forms, and those who were too embarrassed to ask for help. For Ms. Levy, the expansion has been 鈥渋deal.鈥�
But the idea of providing universal free meals requires a certain shift in thought 鈥� and budgets 鈥� that not everyone agrees with. One Indianapolis-area public school contacted by the Monitor, for example, was hesitant to comment on its meal expansions. The administrator voiced concerns over how members of the community, located in a politically conservative area, would react to the fact that people who didn鈥檛 need free meals might be getting them.
鈥淭丑别 was created to provide meals for children from low-income families, period,鈥� says Jonathan Butcher, who researches education policy at the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation. While opening up eligibility during the pandemic might make sense, previous expansions 鈥� and the prospect of making the current one permanent 鈥撀爃ave resulted in programs straying from their origins and providing meals to people who don鈥檛 want or need them, he says.聽
When it comes to shoring up the previous system, 鈥渓et鈥檚 make a program that is going to help those in need as effectively as possible,鈥� Mr. Butcher says. 鈥淢aking school meals universal creates an entitlement 鈥� it essentially gives up on the idea that we should be concerned about accuracy.鈥�
鈥淎ll of a sudden we can afford it鈥�
Hattie Johnson, director of nutrition services for Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) in Bloomington, Indiana, knows something about crunching numbers.
Before the pandemic, during the 2019-20 school year, Ms. Johnson鈥檚 school system was on track to rack up nearly $100,000 in school lunch debt, accrued from students not paying for their lunches.聽
When students pass through the lunch line without any cash, schools usually serve them anyway and document the money the family needs to pay back. When it鈥檚 a kid who forgot her lunch money, that鈥檚 no big deal. When it鈥檚 a family struggling to make ends meet 鈥� but ineligible for free meals 鈥� schools are stuck chasing after money from people who don鈥檛 have it. In recent years, the MCCSC has turned to a local charitable foundation and the federal government to help reconcile the negative balance.
But this past school year brought a completely unexpected test: Can the nation actually afford to offer free school lunch? Ever since March 2020, MCCSC has done just that, and its school lunch debt problem has essentially disappeared.聽
鈥淚鈥檝e been in school meals since 1993. And when I came in ... the big push was universal feeding鈥� 鈥� that is, free school meals for all, regardless of income, says Ms. Johnson. 鈥淔or a gazillion years, [the United States Department of Agriculture] would say we cannot afford it. Then, COVID. And all of a sudden we can afford it.鈥�
This spring, there aren鈥檛 as many free meals being served as Ms. Johnson would have expected 鈥� children have returned to classrooms, but some families are still remote, and not all are picking up meals. Others are packing lunch, out of COVID-19 concerns. But the results of this year鈥檚 experiment in universal free meals are clear 鈥� at least to her.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e supposed to treat all kids the same, if public education is supposed to be free, and we know that the kids can鈥檛 make it through the school day without having something to eat, then why isn鈥檛 it a part of a free education?鈥�
