In an effort to address the “record numbers” of American children who are going hungry, dozens of Democrats in the House and Senate this week proposed legislation that would provide all students from pre-school through high school with three free meals a day plus a snack, regardless of income.
The program’s funding source or cost are not mentioned in the bill. Many acts contain language stating that Congress will authorise whatever funds are required to implement a new programme, that funding will come through expenditure offsets, or that revenue would be raised through taxes or spending offsets.
“It is an international embarrassment that today, in the richest country in the history of the world, we are seeing record numbers of children and youth struggling with hunger on a daily basis,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, the Senate bill’s sponsor.
Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota who is the bill’s primary sponsor in the House, noted that universal school meals are not just a sensible policy but also very well-liked. “More than 75% of Americans, including the majority of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, support permanent universal school lunches. It’s time to pay attention to what our supporters are asking for and finally make school lunches free and available to all children.
Democrats claim that the Universal School Meals Programme Act, which they have introduced, would help remove the “school lunch shaming” that is witnessed under the existing programme, which requires children to demonstrate their eligibility for a free meal, would help end this practise.
According to a summary of the legislation, “Children have been publicly shamed for not being able to afford lunch, and as USDA reported, lunch shaming is a problem throughout the country, including withholding grades for school meal debt.” One school threatened to take away parents’ children, while another stamped a “I Need Lunch Money” stamp on the skin of youngsters as a means of collecting unpaid school lunches.
The bill also pays back any past-due debts for school lunches incurred by all schools under the current system.
Democrats contend that by making lunches free for every student, the cost of doing so would decrease. According to the bill’s summary, “Our bill puts an end to the time-consuming application paperwork by removing the requirement for a Free and Reduced Lunch Programme application in order to participate in the programme.”
Democrats claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for a universal programme that provides food for all children, regardless of their family’s financial situation. In a statement, the bill’s proponents claimed that giving schools the freedom to provide school meals to a larger range of children helped tens of millions of children stay fed and cautioned that the end of the pandemic threatened that improved access.
A universal approach to school meals, according to what we’ve observed during this pandemic, is effective, Sanders said. “We are unable to turn back. Congress needs to enact this legislation right away to guarantee that no student will ever go hungry again.
