Congress got rid of a free lunch for all program. That means some students are going hungry

Congress got rid of a free lunch for all program. That means some students are going hungry

Show Caption Hide Caption Feeling the pinch from inflation: food banks are feeding more families Even with inflation easing, families are still relying on food banks to help feed their families. Over a period of a year, grocery prices rose 13.1%. Megan Smith, USA TODAY

Students are back to racking up lunch debt this school year after federal legislation that provided free meals to all students expired.

With free meals for all gone, participation in school meal programs has dropped by 23 percent, according to federal data. And schools have accrued more than $19 million in unpaid meal debt, according to a new survey from the School Nutrition Association.

Advocates worry kids are going hungry at school as meal prices increase and because they have had to resume filling out applications for free or subsidized meals. They want the federal government to do more.

As schools around the country reopen after winter break, their students are being reminded of the lunch debt they've racked up this school year – an ugly reality that follows the end of federal assistance that paid for school meals for more than 50 million students during the pandemic.

Congress ended the free-lunch-for-all program in June, reverting to a system in which low-income families had to fill out paperwork to qualify for aid based on their income. But some families have been left behind because they do not understand the application process, and others are rejected because they do not qualify. A family of four must earn about $36,000 a year or less to qualify for free lunch.

Schools often feed these students, requiring them to pay later and creating a debt many families cannot pay down. For some children, the debt can get so big that schools stop giving them a full meal.

Community organizations, social media influencers and national nonprofits are trying to help fill the void with donations to cover the more than $19 million in debt students have accrued just halfway into the school year.

It doesn’t seem to be enough: Plenty of kids face going without school lunches or getting smaller, alternative school meals when they return to school this winter because of their negative balances. This is happening at a time of historic inflation, when school meal prices are rising and many families are struggling to pay rent and feed their children.

More: Congress let COVID-era relief expire. Millions of kids already have fallen into poverty.

How much school lunch debt is there?

Results from a national survey by the School Nutrition Association, published Wednesday, shows 847 schools had amassed $19.2 million in lunch debt.

Debt varies across the country. Across North Carolina, lunch debt exceeded $1 million as of Nov. 1. One Wisconsin school district surpassed $14,000 in school lunch debt by October. And in Georgia, a nonprofit called All For Lunch paid $130,000 to wipe the debt of several schools across several metro area counties in December.

More: Are school lunches free this year? What to know now that pandemic-era meal program is ending

Universal school meals can promote academic achievement, keep kids healthier and reduce "lunch shaming" of students who have unpaid meal debt and can't afford their lunch, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokeswoman for the national School Nutrition Association.

According to the national campaign No Kid Hungry, run by the nonprofit Share Our Strength, "students who eat school breakfast have been shown to achieve 17.5% higher scores on standardized math tests and attend 1.5 more days of school per year" on average.

Several community groups and even social media influencers are donating to help schools cover students' debt and supporting initiatives that could lead to policy change.

The nonprofit Tusk Philanthropies' Solving Hunger is funding four organizations focused on promoting policy change related to universal free healthy school meals. The organization is funding campaigns in Connecticut, New York, North Carolina and Vermont.

In another, Sarah Stusek recorded herself calling Mount Vernon Community School in a viral TikTok video to pay off the Virginia school’s nearly $1,700 lunch debt.

“It’s wonderful (Sarah) is doing that, and that so many community organizations have stepped up to help address this," the School Nutrition Association's Pratt-Heavner said. "But it’s unfortunately a short-term solution and one of the reasons Congress should provide school lunches.”

In recent years, new state legislation has emerged to ban lunch-shaming – preventing schools from feeding kids who can't pay or have with debt smaller alternative meals, thereby broadcasting that they haven't paid up.

Which states offer free meals to kids?

Some states opted to continue free-lunch-for-all programs, including Massachusetts, Nevada, Vermont and Pennsylvania.

California, Maine and now Colorado are the only states with laws ensuring permanent universal meal programs for all children, regardless of parents' income.

A few districts, including in Chicago and New York City, also offer free meals to kids.

More: California to provide free breakfast, lunch for students in first statewide meals program

More: Parents go into debt to pay for kids' breakfasts, lunches

More: With the end of universal free lunch in most Wisconsin school districts, what options remain?

What other meal problems are schools experiencing?

Kids are accruing debt in part because schools are having a hard time getting kids to sign up for the federal free and reduced-price school lunch program. Some children don't qualify but still can't afford meals.

A survey by the National Center for Education Statistics shows student participation in school meal programs is down from last school year by 23% nationally. The largest drop is in the Midwest at 31%.

The October survey shows that of the 88% of schools that operate USDA school lunch and breakfast meal programs, 1 in 4 reported "it was much more or a little more difficult for their school to operate meal programs" this school year compared with last.

Schools told the School Nutrition Association increasing costs, staff shortages, menu item shortages, menu items being discontinued and unpaid meal debt are some of their top challenges.

Free school meals for all: These are key to Biden's plan to cut hunger, improve Americans' diets

Contact Kayla Jimenez at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @kaylajjimenez.