(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Student debt is racking up after free meal programs that covered over 50 million U.S. kids expired [1]
['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2023-01-11
“School meal programs are at a tipping point as rising costs, persistent supply chain issues, and labor shortages jeopardize their long-term sustainability,” School Nutrition Association (SNA) President Lori Adkins said in a statement.
“Congress has an opportunity to protect this critical lifeline by making reimbursement increases permanent and allowing us to offer free meals to ensure all students are nourished during the school day.”
The SNA applauded the bipartisan Keep Kids Fed Act of 2022, but during the Senate’s consideration of the bill, senators struck a key provision that would have made meals free for students eligible for reduced-price lunches.
“We are extremely disappointed Senate leaders were forced to strike a key provision to eliminate the reduced-price meal co-pay for eligible families, struggling with rising food and gas costs,” former SNA President Beth Wallace said at the time. “Throughout the pandemic, free school meals have ensured students are nourished and ready to learn. The loss of free school meals puts too many students at risk of going hungry.”
The nonprofit Tusk Philanthropies Solving Hunger is funding campaigns and policies for universal free healthy meals programs in Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, and Vermont, USA Today reports. And in Georgia, the nonprofit called All For Lunch paid $130,000 to help erase the debt of school kids in several counties, USA Today reports.
The student debt began to accumulate after the pandemic aid ended, although some schools continue feeding kids despite the debt incurred. Additionally, some kids aren’t signing up for the federal free and reduced-cost lunches, in part because they don’t qualify, but many still can’t afford meals.
Some states have laws on the books to ensure that students always have access to free meals, regardless of their family’s income, including California, Maine, and most recently, Colorado.
The SNA is pushing for Congress to restore the universal meal programs that provided free meals during the COVID-19 pandemic to all U.S. students, regardless of income.
The truth is hungry kids have a hard time learning.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/11/2146693/-Student-debt-is-racking-up-after-free-meal-programs-that-covered-over-50-million-U-S-kids-expired
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
