Supporters call for expanding free school meals in U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON – In the process of perseverance Child hunger and food insecurity In the United States, lawmakers and advocates emphasized the importance of school feeding programs at a U.S. Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.
Severe effects of hunger Your child’s emotional and physical health and may result in negative consequences in school, Research shows. According to the Office for National Statistics, 47.4 million people lived in food insecure households last year. U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Federally funded programs, such as the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, provide free and reduced-price meals to students across the country.
Advocates said these programs play a vital role in helping reduce childhood hunger and urged the panel to expand them.
“School lunches should always be free and absolutely non-judgmental,” said Senator John Fetterman, chairman of the Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics and Research Subcommittee.
“Honestly, this shouldn’t be a conversation — it’s like asking kids to pay for their school bus every morning or pay for their own textbooks in school,” Fetterman said.
Fetterman and Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey two bills introduced June aims to expand access to free or reduced-price meals for children. Part of the measure also calls for amending community eligibility rules to allow schools and districts in low-income areas to offer free meal options to all students.
Fetterman also sponsored the Universal School Meals Program Act, which was sponsored by Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders According to Sanders last May, this would “provide every student with free breakfast, lunch and dinner without requiring them to prove they are poor enough to deserve help getting three meals a day.” generalize of the bill. Introduced by U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota companion bill.
Subcommittee ranking member Mike Braun of Indiana said he introduced U.S. school food laws Last July, it partnered with Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in an effort to “better prioritize and support the use of American foods in school feeding programs.”
The bipartisan bill would increase school meal requirements to include American products.
state a model
Crystal FitzSimons, interim president of the Food Research and Action Center, noted that eight states Implemented policy Provide school meals to all students regardless of family income. These states include California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont.
The national nonprofit organization aims to reduce poverty-related hunger in the United States through research, advocacy and policy solutions.
“While these eight states show us what’s possible, the subcommittee and Congress should take critical steps to expand the reach and impact of school meals nationwide,” Fitzsimmons said.
Fitzsimmons said that as part of addressing this issue, Congress can “ensure that all children across the country are not hungry during school and are ready to learn by allowing all schools to provide free meals to all students” and universal school meals. The Planning Act “created this path”.
Meg Bruening, professor and chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Penn State, said, “America’s school feeding programs provide a dietary safety net for nearly 30 million children each year” — 60 percent of the nation’s children. .
Bruning said these school feeding programs are linked to Dietary Guidelines for Americans“, “Make sure children are provided with a variety of healthy foods at school, where they spend most of their waking and mealtimes.
The guidance was developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services. Updated every five years.
Summer EBIT Pension
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., emphasized that childhood hunger increases during the summer when children are unable to receive regular meals at school.
Thirty-seven states, the District of Columbia, and multiple territories and tribal nations have chosen a new initiative this year called Summer EBT to provide food for children during the long summer months.
The USDA program, also known as Sun Bucks, provides low-income families with school-age children with a $120 per child subsidy for summer grocery purchases.
But 13 states, including georgiaOpt out of the program in 2024.
Warnock said he hoped National leaders change their stance About summer EBT.
“Unfortunately, my home state of Georgia did not opt for Sun Bucks, which some officials said would not lead to higher nutritional outcomes for students and that the existing program was ‘effective,'” he said.
“I hear our state leadership saying, ‘We don’t need it,'” he added. “I’m still trying to figure out who this ‘we’ is – who are you speaking for when you say ‘we don’t need it’?”
A spokesman for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said the governor is concerned about the program’s dietary standards and costs.
