Universal Free Meals for Students Have Expired, Parents Fear for Their Finances, Ability To Feed Their Children

Universal free breakfast and lunch have ended as COVID-era free meal stubs have already reached their expiration dates, causing parents to worry about their kid's school budget and their capacity to provide.

Students get free breakfast and lunch in school, regardless of their parent's income, as one of the benefits and assistance to each family during the pandemic. However, this "free meal" benefit has already ended in this newly opened school year.

Fortunately, an offer for free or reduced meals is given to those students who qualify after going through an application process. This, nonetheless, does not remove the fear and worry over finances and the ability to provide their children with food, Today reported.

Why wasn't the 'free meal' extended?

Co-director of the nonprofit parent advocacy group ParentsTogether Action, Ailen Arreaza, expressed regret about the free meals for students ending.

She explained that aside from the children losing free breakfast and lunch, some families might need to shed more money when they are already having financial difficulties at the moment. 

"Parents want to love, care and support their kids, but when we take things away, like free school lunch, and make it even more expensive for them to make lunch, it's really hard for parents to care for their kids."

During the height of the pandemic in 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service made it possible to offer free school lunches to all students regardless of the income of the family. This initiative allowed low-income parents under the poverty line not to apply and fill out paperwork to qualify for free or reduced meals at school. Moreover, waivers were also issued to extend these free meals, specifically during summer and school breaks.

The food assistance expired in June, and President Joe Biden, though he signed a law to extend some of the waivers, did not allow the Keep Kids Fed Act or the universal free meal to continue.

The Agriculture Department stated that an average of 10 million children no longer have free access to school meals because their family's income is above or, for most, just barely above the poverty line. 

Low-income parents are back to filling out forms and going through an application process, which is causing a stressful impact, especially on those who are busy with their jobs or those who cannot speak English.

Read Also: Free School Meals Guaranteed for California and Maine While Other States End Program

'Free meal for all' drives away the stigma

ParentsTogether Action surveyed 500 parents and found nine out of ten parents are having difficulty making ends meet with rising prices and the 2021 Child Tax Credit payments.

Cassie Williams, a working mother of two kids, ages 6 and 2, in Michigan, said that upon checking their finances and income level, her kids would not qualify for the free or reduced meals at school. She shared that they have saved $100 per month by not buying meals for their children at school based on her computation. However, she expressed that more than the amount, the biggest savings would have to be not worrying about her kids' meals at school at all because they were already provided.

USDA released a statement in 2020 saying that an estimated 6.1 million children live in "food-insecure households" without adequate food on their table.

Arreaza fears that students might go hungry in school, which will undoubtedly affect their learning, energy, behavior, and attention.

What scares her the most is the stigma of being "othered" will again be present among students. She said that this was eliminated when the universal free meal began. No one was "othered" when everyone had access to free meals and ate the same food every day. No one was labeled based on the kind of food they were eating or the family's income level.

Related Article: Healthy Parenting: Raising Kids In The Junk Food Age