Wisconsin May Bring Back Free Meals for Students

Friday, April 21st, 2023 -- 12:01 PM

(By Danielle DuClos | Green Bay Press-Gazette) Like many parents, Price wakes up early during the week to make breakfast, prepare herself for work and get Oliver ready for school.

According to Danielle DuClos with Green Bay Press-Gazette, she also packs him a lunch, something parents didn’t have to do a year ago. In 2020, lunch was free for all students nationwide at schools that opted into a federal assistance program to offset some of the pressures of COVID-19.

At the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, that federal aid ended and schools reverted back to the old system, a system that requires caregivers to fill out an annual form with their income to see if their child qualifies for a free or reduced price option.

Otherwise, kids may bring a lunch, pay for school lunch or, in some cases, not eat. And kids are going hungry. One Green Bay teacher said she notices more kids not eating at lunchtime because the universal free lunch program ended.

The end of the program left families struggling to feed their kids and school nutrition departments underfunded as they navigate higher food costs, supply chain issues and families who can’t pay.

About 1 in 8 children face hunger in Wisconsin, according to Feeding America, and research shows that hunger can lead to lower academic performance and developmental delays.

That pandemic-era lunch program was a glimpse at a possible future for the American education system: feeding all kids at school for free, no matter their income. Wisconsin might bring it back.

While free meals for all ended at the federal level, a few states (Colorado, California, Minnesota and Maine) have taken matters into their own hands and passed laws to fund free food for students at the state level.

Wisconsin has not, but that doesn’t mean it’s off the table. Gov. Tony Evers is seeking $120 million in his state budget proposal to fund free breakfast and lunch for all Wisconsin students in public, private and charter schools, making up what isn’t covered by the federal government.

Rep. Kristina Shelton, D-Green Bay, has been working to get free school meals passed in Wisconsin for nearly two years. As a former physical education and health teacher, the issue is close to her heart.

During the Legislature's last session, Shelton introduced a bill to provide free school meals, but it never got a committee hearing. Shelton is working alongside the Healthy School Meals for All coalition, a group of school and community advocates, to push for legislative action on free school meals.

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