By SOPHIA BRANDT
Capital News Service
LANSING – Michigan schoolchildren may be at risk of going hungry due to the federal government eliminating funding for free meals in public schools after the pandemic.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is now pushing a new $160 million proposal to close the hunger gap created when federal funding ended. If passed, Michigan would be the fourth state to offer free meals to all public school students.
“Regardless of the community, there are always hungry kids,” said Daniel Connors, the director of food and nutrition services at Chippewa Valley Schools in Macomb County.
In July 2022, statewide free meals were no longer federally funded in Michigan. This school year, free and reduced meals programs are limited to families who cannot cover the costs.
The previous funding was provided through COVID-19 relief from the federal government. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says families have to go back to the way things were pre-pandemic.
According to the Michigan League for Public Policy, around 715,000 kids in the K-12 public school system qualified for free and reduced meals in 2021, based on household income.
Overall, about 1,443,456 children were enrolled in public schools in the 2021-22 school year, according to Michigan School Data.
Offering free meals for all students “removes the burden of worrying about paying for school meals, both for students and families. It also removes the stigma that may be associated with eating school-provided meals and removes the stress of filling out paperwork from parents,” said Mary Darnton, the food service director for Jenison & Hudsonville Schools in Georgetown Township, between Grand Rapids and Holland.
Darnton is also the president of the executive board of the School Nutrition Association of Michigan.
Connors said children who cannot afford a meal and don’t receive benefits may be given an alternative meal in some districts. When that happens, it may add to the stigma surrounding free and reduced meals.
“It is comforting at every level for teachers, parents, administrators and lunch workers. We just want to be able to feed our students and have that be the focus without worrying about paperwork and signatures,” Darnton said.
Connors said a lot of teachers keep snacks in their classroom cabinets. If children are getting school-provided meals, that weight is lifted off of teachers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s guidelines use household size and gross income to determine eligibility.
Darnton said, “The thing with the guidelines is that they are set at the federal level. If a family is $1 over the income limit, we can’t extend the benefits. On paper, it may look as though the family does not qualify, but in real life the money for school meals may not be in that family’s budget.”
Whitmer has proposed that the state spend $160 million, which will cover free breakfast and lunch for 1.4 million students at K-12 schools, in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
If free meals become available to all public school students again, Darnton said the main challenge will be learning how to work within the new system.
Darnton said that providing free meals during the pandemic helped prepare school districts to do so again.
“Challenges for food service directors, like me, will be knowing participation will rise and making sure we can get supplies, staffing and training. We will have to learn how to feed students for free,” she said.
California, Maine and Colorado have moved away from traditional eligibility-based free and reduced meal programs and now offer free meals to all students.
According to the Food Research and Action Center, located in Washington, D.C., California and Maine passed legislation in 2021 to continue providing free meals even after the federal support ended.
In 2022, Colorado voters passed a proposal that raised taxes for incomes over $300,000. The added revenue will fund the Healthy School Meals for All Program to offer free lunch in public schools, said the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Michigan would become the fourth state with free school meals for all students if lawmakers adopt Whitmer’s proposal.
With rising inflation, grocery bills have been adding up, Darnton said, and enabling kids to eat breakfast and lunch at school five days a week will ultimately improve household financial situations.
Darnton said, “This is money that gets to stay at home and in the household.”
That means families can use that money for things like rent, utilities and everyday necessities, Darnton said.
“No matter what socioeconomic background, if it means smoother mornings, kids who are ready to learn and fewer discipline issues, schools are here and ready to feed those kids,” she said.