BILL: Should We Promote Free School Lunches? - Universal School Meals Program Act of 2023 - H.R.3204

The Bill

H.R.3204 - Universal School Meals Program Act of 2023

Bill Details

• Sponsored by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on May 11, 2023
• Committees: House - Education and the Workforce; Agriculture; Science, Space, and Technology
• House: Not yet voted
• Senate: Not yet voted
• President: Not yet signed

Bill Overview

• Amends the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 and the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to make breakfasts and lunches free for all children.
• Revives one of the coronavirus pandemic era's most popular social experiments: universal free school meals.
• Five states – California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, and New Mexico – have already passed laws to provide free universal school meals.
• Provides incentives for local food procurement, which will bolster and promote small family farms and local, healthy ingredients. 

What's in the Bill?

Ends hunger in schools

• Ends child hunger by offering free breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus a snack to all students from preschool to high school, regardless of income.
• Restores the COVID-era program that saw 30 million children a day nationwide getting free meals.

Reduces stigma

• Hopes to remove the public shame of being a reduced-price or free lunch student in an environment where other children can afford meals. Reduces the stigma for families who cannot pay for their children's lunch accounts.

Improves educational outcomes

• Studies show that access to free breakfast improves students' attendance rates and academic performance in school.
• Free school meals are not only linked to better health but also to fewer incidents of behavioral problems and lower suspension rates.

What Supporters Are Saying

• Rep. Omar said:

"The fact that we here in the United States are having a debate on the value of providing crucial meals to our children in times where we are expecting them to exercise their brain and to receive information through their educational lessons is an embarrassment. Myself and others would consider it morally bankrupt."

• Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) and Martin Heinrich (N.M.) and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) are vocal supporters of the bill. 
• Sen. Sanders said:

"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. What we've seen during this pandemic is that a universal approach to school meals works. We cannot go backwards. It is time for Congress to pass this legislation to ensure no student goes hungry again."

What Opponents Are Saying

• The Republican Study Committee (of which some three-quarters of House Republicans are members) released a proposed budget for 2024, which would cut funding for universal free lunches.
• Republican lawmakers also argue that the program is rampant with fraud.

Tell your reps to support or oppose this bill

—Emma Kansiz