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Free school meals were a godsend for Lynnea Hawkins long before the pandemic. Her son was living with his father in a tiny northern Maine town, and his father, who receives disability insurance, is 鈥渞eally bad at budgeting,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here were times when my son was calling me [saying], 鈥楳om, there鈥檚 no food in the house.鈥欌�� Free breakfast and lunch at school 鈥渢ook a little of the stress off,鈥� she said.

But every year she had to send in paperwork to prove to his school that their family qualified. In order to be eligible, a family of four has to make or less. Her son had to then carry those papers with him and hand them to a teacher in front of all the other children, some of whom were quite wealthy. Her son is large for his age and 鈥渂ecause he was big they would say hurtful things because it was easy,鈥� she said. Being enrolled in free school meals was 鈥渁nother thing for them to torment him with.鈥�

What the pandemic proved is that it鈥檚 not just possible, but smart policy, to offer all students free meals. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had this strange test case within the context of the pandemic. We鈥檝e shown that it works.鈥�

Eleni Towns, Associate Director, No Kid Hungry

That all changed in the pandemic. After Congress passed legislation in the spring of 2020, the Department of Agriculture was able to issue waivers to allow schools a lot of flexibility in their nutrition programs, including, crucially, giving free meals to all students regardless of their families鈥� income. All of Hawkins鈥檚 son鈥檚 classmates also started getting free meals and no family had to send in any paperwork to be shamefully handed over to teachers. 鈥淎ll kids were eligible,鈥� she said. 鈥淔or a little while that went away.鈥�

But for millions of children across the country, that shame and stigma has now returned with the end of the waivers. After them on a bipartisan basis during the pandemic, Congress to extend the changes only through this past summer and then get rid of the provision making meals free to all students at the start of this schoolyear, a change introduced at the behest of Republicans who free meals for all are no longer necessary.

Schools are now shouldering the administrative cost of processing all the paperwork they didn鈥檛 have to deal with during the pandemic at the same time that other costs for food and staff are rising. And students across the country are getting cut off from free meals they had come to rely on, some of whom have families whose incomes put them just a couple of dollars above the cutoff. Hunger and hardship will surely rise.

When the pandemic first forced schools to shut their doors in the spring of 2020, their nutrition programs had to scramble to keep providing kids with food. All of a sudden they started having to pack meals and allow families to pick them up with social distancing in place. To make it work, Congress allowed the Department of Agriculture to issue waivers allowing schools to switch over to a model they can rely on in natural disasters or other emergency closings as well as during the summer: all children at qualifying sites become eligible. Schools 鈥渄id not have the capacity to be individually qualifying kids and figuring out if that child was eligible for free or reduced price meals,鈥� said Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs at the Food Research & Action Center. Officials 鈥渨anted interaction between meal site staff and families picking up meals as quick and seamless as possible.鈥�

The next school year was similar, with many students learning virtually, and even places that brought kids back into the school wanted cafeteria lines to move as fast as possible. Meanwhile, schools have been facing a number of other costly challenges with their nutrition programs, including supply chain disruptions, climbing inflation and higher labor costs with staff shortages.

Eliminating the work required to collect and process the paperwork to determine which kids are eligible and which aren鈥檛 was a huge help. 鈥淥ne of the easiest things to do is to feed any child who asks for a meal,鈥� FitzSimons said. 鈥淚t reduces paperwork and administration.鈥� Staff, in turn took the extra time and devoted it to other things: developing new recipes, incorporating plant-based meals, even rolling out QR codes giving students, parents and teachers information about the menus. When they 鈥渄idn鈥檛 have to spend tens of thousands of dollars in the administrative burden of tracking kids,鈥� said Katie Wilson, executive director of the Urban School Food Alliance, 鈥渢hey did some really innovative, cool things to make things better.鈥�

Free school meals also have a well proven track record of helping students learn and develop, which is even more important as they overcome learning impacts from the pandemic shutdowns. As , 鈥淪tudents who participate in school breakfast programs have improved attendance, behavior, academic performance and academic achievement as well as decreased tardiness, based on decades of research on the topic.鈥� School breakfast chronic absenteeism while boosting reading achievement and behavior. Universal free meals are especially important for discipline problems.

The waivers also helped keep hunger at bay even as millions of families lost their jobs and their livelihoods during the pandemic. Among 62 large school districts, said the waivers decreased student hunger. Food insecurity actually in 2020 and 2021 despite dramatic economic shocks, and food hardship for families with children actually in 2021. Free school meals have long proven to reduce hunger and help parents the food they need.

In the same survey of large school districts, 85 percent said the waivers also erased stigma. 鈥淲e got rid of the entire stigma of school meals,鈥� Wilson said. 鈥淚t cleared the slate and said we value every child in our community and every child gets access to food.鈥� Before the pandemic, in some districts children who received free meals had to eat in a separate room just for children on the program, risking shame and losing time with friends. Instead, schools were able to integrate meals into the school day鈥攐ffering breakfast at the front door as everyone entered or in the classroom itself. 鈥淚t helps develop a culture in the school building in which school meals are encouraged for all students,鈥� said Eleni Towns, associate director at No Kid Hungry.

But now that Congress has ended the waivers, school districts have to once again invest time and resources into the administrative burden of determining which children are and aren鈥檛 eligible for meals, both by collecting paperwork and then verifying eligibility every day. It鈥檚 a 鈥渓abor intensive process鈥� to collect applications, FitzSimons said. Districts have to 鈥渋nvest a lot of staff capacity and time,鈥� Towns said. Parents haven鈥檛 had to apply for free meals since the fall of 2019, and some families with very young children have never had to do it. Some parents may struggle with the application process, especially if English is not their first language or they鈥檙e dealing with housing instability, and others won鈥檛 apply for fear of the stigma. Districts have told Towns that the response rates are coming in much lower than they expected, 鈥渟o they鈥檙e worried parents and kids are falling through the cracks,鈥� she said.

Schools are also having to spend time collecting fees from those who only qualify for reduced price meals. Lunch debt is bound to start piling up. FitzSimons鈥檚 organization is already starting to hear that those balances are accruing. Everyone is braced for the local news stories about school lunch debt 鈥� such as , , or even 鈥� to start getting published again.

And families are getting cut off from a lifeline. 鈥淭he eligibility for free school meals is too low, and it leaves many families who need access to free school meals out,鈥� FitzSimons said. Her organization is already hearing that many families that received free meals last year were encouraged to apply this year, only to find out they made too much qualify. A family of three can earn to be able to receive free meals. If it earns more than $42,606 it won鈥檛 be able to get reduced price meals, either. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to be struggling to put food on the table if you鈥檙e a family of three making $31,00, or maybe even $40,000,鈥� FitzSimons pointed out. Before the pandemic, of families with children who were food insecure didn鈥檛 qualify for free or reduced price meals.

鈥淪tudents who participate in school breakfast programs have improved attendance, behavior, academic performance and academic achievement as well as decreased tardiness, based on decades of research on the topic.鈥� School breakfast staves off chronic absenteeism while boosting reading achievement and behavior. Universal free meals are especially important for reducing discipline problems.

Report by the Food Research & Action Center

That means more children will go hungry. Families are struggling to put food on the table with inflation so high and things like the expanded Child Tax Credit payments from last year expired. Free school meals 鈥渆ases the overall household budget so much at a time when families are really being squeezed,鈥� FitzSimons said.

Some states have stepped in where Congress has failed to act. High-poverty school districts can opt into what鈥檚 called the Community Eligibility Provision, which allows them to serve free meals to all students, and FitzSimons has seen many districts decide to join during the pandemic. Oregon legislation that expanded free school meal eligibility to families earning up to 300 percent of the poverty line, and New Jersey just to 200 percent of the poverty level. Meanwhile, some states are passing legislation to keep free meals going for all. and passed legislation making such a program permanent, while , and have done so for one year. Colorado voters will whether to offer all students free meals in November, and other states are working on campaigns, too.

Congress could also act, but the chances aren鈥檛 high. The House Committee on Education and Labor has passed the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act, which would reauthorize the child nutrition program and the community eligibility provision so more schools can opt in while also increasing school districts鈥� reimbursement rates. But although the last reauthorization in 2015, and it鈥檚 supposed to be reauthorized every five years, it鈥檚 unclear if it will get done before the end of the year.

What the pandemic proved is that it鈥檚 not just possible, but smart policy, to offer all students free meals. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had this strange test case within the context of the pandemic,鈥� Towns said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e shown that it works.鈥�

Hawkins is among the lucky ones since she lives in Maine, where free school meals for all are now permanent. But she knows the acute pinch of hunger well. Her refrigerator and pantry emptied out recently before her monthly food stamps benefit arrived. She didn鈥檛 realize until it finally came 鈥渉ow much it was weighing on me,鈥� she said. She immediately went grocery shopping and filled her empty cabinets, refrigerator and freezer. Now she doesn鈥檛 have to worry that her son might get up for a midnight snack and eat the next day鈥檚 dinner. 鈥淚t鈥檚 such a weight off knowing that there鈥檚 food,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f nothing else, there鈥檚 food.鈥�

She knows there are plenty of other parents who shoulder that weight, even heavier for those who now can鈥檛 rely on free meals at school to help keep their children fed. She has neighbors whose incomes would have put them just a few dollars over the limit, denying them free school meals, had her state not continued the program on its own. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what scares me, is being five or ten dollars away from being able to guarantee two meals a day to your kids,鈥� she said.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 imagine who would think it鈥檚 okay to take food away from kids,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ur kids here already have enough struggles with poor housing and low-income families. They don鈥檛 need to be hungry too.鈥�

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 麻豆精品. Learn more here.