Issue Summary
America’s food insecurity issue has worsened since the onset of the pandemic, and children have been especially vulnerable. Nearly 15% of U.S. households with children under the age of 18 experienced food insecurity in 2020, including 11.7 million children. In response to this crisis, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded breakfast and lunch for all K-12 students regardless of family income status. Seeing that Congress would allow the program to expire on June 30, 2022, Connecticut state officials dedicated around $30 million to continue to provide school meals for all students.
Those funds ran out on December 1, forcing schools to once again charge students who are poor enough to face food insecurity, but are not poor enough to qualify for the National School Lunch Program. For example, families of four earning more than $51,000 per year earn too much to qualify, despite living within the federal poverty threshold. With grocery prices up more than 10%, conditions are rife for increased childhood hunger if lawmakers fail to act.
In order to prevent child hunger among students in school, organizations such as End Hunger Connecticut (EHC) have organized a coalition called School Meals for All. In this coalition, they support no cost school meals at every public school to ensure that all students have access to healthy meals. This coalition also aims to create a potential bill that provides not only healthy meals for students but also an increase in federal reimbursements for school meals and an option for parents to provide a meal for their children.
Action Item
Please contact your legislator to let them now that you care about this issue and that you want something done. Below is a sample script for calls or emails to your legislators.
Click here to find your state legislator’s contact information.
Sample Script
“Hello. My name is ____ and I live in ____. I am writing to urge you to support permanent, universal no-cost meals for Connecticut public schoolchildren during the 2023 legislative session. Ever since schools stopped receiving Covid19 emergency funds and state aid for meals, many students have been put at greater risk for going hungry. This is especially true for students who come from families already battling food insecurity, as well as those living in food swamps or food deserts.
Providing no cost meals for all public-school children in Connecticut is also important to me because [YOU CAN ADD A PERSONAL ANECDOTE OR STATEMENT OF YOUR VALUES]
Thank you for your time. I believe that this is an important issue and I would like to see action taken as it affects the health and wellbeing of Connecticut school kids.”
For more information, contact the Collaborative Center for Justice at 860-692-3066 or at advocacy@ccfj.org.
Additional Information & Potential Talking Points
Academic Success:
- Students need to be nutritionally balanced to perform well in school.
- Having deficiencies in vitamins and minerals can inhibit mental concentration and other cognitive abilities.
- Children who experience food insecurity are more likely to have impaired learning at school and an increased risk of mental delays.
Economic Relief for Families:
- When schools provide free lunches for families; it helps families to save money from grocery shopping. This can be very beneficial for children who come from low-income families.
- In 2020, 13.8 million American households experienced uncertain or limited access to adequate food.
- Food insecurity is common among people that are poor and people of color.
- According to one USDA study, at 21.7%, Black households were found to be more than twice as likely to experience food insecurity than the national average of 10.5%, while 17.2% of Hispanic households experienced food insecurity.
- According to a recent study, providing free or reduced lunch helped to reduce food insecurity by 3.8%.
Kids Will Have More Access to Fresh Foods:
- This is very important because there are kids that attend schools that come from areas that are either food insecure, have food deserts, or have food swamps.
- Food Insecurity: The lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active healthy life. Food insecurity can be short-term or long-term.
- Food Desert: Residential areas that have poor access to healthy, nutritious, and affordable food. Poor access to healthy food options can be for a variety of things such as transportation and long distances from grocery stores.
- Food Swamps: This is an area where there are grocery stores however, they are outnumbered by fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and liquor stores.
- All in all, providing free meals to students who come from food-insecure, food desert, and food-swamped areas gives them more access to nutritious meals.
It Will Combat the Negative Stigma of Free Meals:
- Some students worry about getting free lunches because of the ways that their peers might classify them. There is often a certain stigma or shame associated with getting free lunch since it is connected to poverty.
- The stigma can lead to bullying or contribute to lower school meal participation rates.
- Income tests have resulted in students not participating due to the fear of stigmas.
- No-cost meals for all students will help to dismantle the negative stigma of free meals. It will also make sure that all students feel comfortable and accepted while eating with their peers.
Free Lunch Helps to Eliminate Lunch Debt
- Most schools have continued to feed all students even when they owe money. This has resulted in massive debt. Unpaid debt is detrimental to schools because the revenue received from lunch money is often used to get resources for food, staff, and cafeteria equipment.
- In a recent survey conducted by the School Nutrition Association, they found that nearly all school nutrition directors that participated are concerned about the financial solvency of their meal programs.
- The debt is so high that some schools are resulting to giving kids with negative balances lessor meals.
- Providing no-cost meals to students helps to clear up lunch debt as well as make lunch more affordable for every student.
