Universal school meals

At a time that we traditionally give thanks with a meal shared with friends and family, it’s worth making note of another way that food is making a difference in the lives of many Minnesotans.
A report from the state Department of Education on the impact of the Free School Meals for Kids program, which was signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz in 2023, is worth reading. For those who don’t recall, the legislation allows all students to receive a free breakfast and lunch at school by providing reimbursement to schools that participate in the national school lunch program, as the vast majority do.
The program increased the number of students who received school breakfast by 40 percent and school lunch by 15 percent. That’s more than 150 million meals served to Minnesota kids in the first year of the program. While many students face challenges at home that can stand in the way of their ability to learn in school, hunger no longer has to be one of them, at least in Minnesota.
And because a combination of state and federal dollars now pays for all school breakfasts and lunches served to students, families with school-aged children stand to save a significant amount of money. According to the report, the free meals program saved Minnesota families over $267 million last year, or $1,000 annually per student on average. That includes $47.7 million in savings for breakfast and $220 million in savings on lunches.
This is a program that, unlike many, actually targets its savings to middle class families, who typically help pay for government programs without receiving much benefit. In this case, low-income families were already qualifying in most cases for free or reduced-price meals at school. It was middle class families that had to pay full-freight and it undoubtedly was just one more expense that was hitting family budgets during the post-COVID inflation surge. For a typical middle-class family with two kids, the program likely cut their annual outlay for lunches and breakfasts by about $2,000, according to the report. It’s an example of a program that brings direct financial benefit to families.
The program also prompted more schools to take part in the federal school nutrition program, which was a requirement to take advantage of the new state funding. Because of low federal reimbursements, many school food services were serious money-losers for districts, requiring that funding gaps be back-filled with regular general education dollars. But the new state program has helped most school food services put their budgets back in the black. That was true in part because the new state program more than doubled participation in the federal Community Eligibility Provision program, which offers schools the maximum reimbursement when they provide free meals to all of their students. With outreach from the Minnesota Department of Education, the number of schools now signed up for the federal CEP program jumped from 160 before the new state program took effect, to 410 in the first year after implementation. And more schools will be coming online over the next year or two as they get approved.
It’s all part of an effort to ensure that food insecurity and hunger is not an impediment to student achievement. Studies have clearly shown the link between proper nutrition and our ability to learn. Our brains consume a disproportionate amount of the food energy we consume and that is particularly true with young people as they grow and learn. According to the World Food Program USA, poor nutrition “can reduce brain cell production, impact cell size and complexity and even lead to less efficient communication between brain cells.” This can result in slower language development, impaired fine motor skills and lower IQ, all of which causes negative impacts on a child’s life in and out of the classroom.
Of course, we all know that the type of food matters when it comes to nutrition. While regular meals help, healthy meals help more — and that’s why the state of Minnesota is ramping up its support for farm-to-school efforts, which are bringing fresh high-quality produce into our schools. These programs have multiple objectives, helping local producers and growers, providing nutritious food to students, and helping students make connections with how their food is grown.
Here in Minnesota, we’re taking steps to ensure that schools can meet the nutritional needs of all students, while teaching them important lessons that will serve them well throughout their lives. That’s something we can all be thankful for.