WASHINGTON — Amid persistent child hunger and food insecurity in the United States, lawmakers and advocates on Wednesday emphasized the critical role of school meal programs during a U.S. Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearing.
Hunger significantly impacts children’s emotional and physical well-being and can lead to poor academic outcomes, research shows. Last year, 47.4 million people lived in food-insecure households, per the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Federally funded initiatives like the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program provide free and reduced-cost meals to students nationwide.
Advocates argue these programs are essential in reducing child hunger and urge their expansion.
“School lunch should always be free and definitely free of judgment,” said Sen. John Fetterman, who heads the Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research.
“Honestly, it shouldn’t be a conversation — it would be like asking the kids to pay for the school bus every morning or to pay for their own textbooks at school,” Fetterman added.
Fetterman and fellow Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. Bob Casey introduced two bills in June to expand access to free or reduced-price meals for children. The legislation also seeks to amend the Community Eligibility Provision, enabling schools in low-income areas to offer free meals to all students.
Fetterman also sponsored the Universal School Meals Program Act, an initiative introduced by independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders last May, which would “provide free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to every student — without demanding they prove they are poor enough to deserve help getting three meals a day,” according to Sanders’ summary. U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, introduced a companion bill.
Subcommittee ranking member Mike Braun of Indiana introduced the American Food for American Schools Act last July with Ohio Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown to prioritize the use of American food in school meal programs.
That bipartisan bill would require more U.S. products in school meals.
States a model
Crystal FitzSimons, interim president of the Food Research & Action Center, noted that eight states have policies offering school meals to all students, regardless of income. These states are California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont.
The national nonprofit aims to reduce poverty-related hunger in the U.S. through research, advocacy, and policy solutions.
“While those eight states are showing us what is possible, there are critical steps the subcommittee and Congress should take to enhance the reach and impact of school meals nationwide,” FitzSimons said.
FitzSimons urged Congress to ensure all children are hunger-free and ready to learn by allowing all schools to offer meals at no charge, highlighting the Universal School Meals Program Act as a solution.
Meg Bruening, professor and department head at Pennsylvania State University’s Department of Nutritional Sciences, stated, “the school meal programs in the U.S. provide a critical safety net for almost 30 million children with meals each year” — comprising 60% of children in the country.
Bruening added that these programs align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, “ensuring a variety of healthy foods are offered to children while at school, where children spend most of their waking and eating hours.”
The guidelines, developed by the USDA and Health and Human Services Department, are updated every five years.
Summer EBT
Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock highlighted how child hunger spikes in the summer when kids lack access to school meals.
Thirty-seven states, the District of Columbia, and multiple territories and tribal nations participated in Summer EBT this year, providing low-income families with a $120 grocery benefit per child for the summer.
However, 13 states, including Georgia, did not participate in 2024. The USDA stated that states have until Jan. 1 to submit a notice of intent for next year’s program.
Warnock expressed hope that state leaders will reconsider their stance on Summer EBT.
“Unfortunately, my home state — the state of Georgia — has not opted in to Sun Bucks, with some officials saying it does not result in higher nutritional outcomes for students, and that existing programs are ‘effective,’” he said.
“I heard our state leadership say: ‘We don’t need it,’” he added. “I’m still trying to figure out who this ‘we’ is — for whom are you speaking when you say: ‘We don’t need it?’”
A spokesperson for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said the governor has concerns about the program’s dietary standards and cost.
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