Universal free lunch is ending in schools. This plan could bring it back for some N.J. kids. (2024)

For the last two years, any student — regardless of their family’s income level — has been able to receive a free school lunch, if their district opted into the National School Lunch Program.

The federal government waived its rules at the start of the pandemic to help ease the financial burden on families and ensure kids would not go hungry as COVID swept across the nation.

But that stretch of free meals is coming to an end.

The federal government’s free lunch waivers are set to expire June 30, after Congress failed to extend them. This summer and during the next school year, schools will return to offering free school lunch to only low-income students who qualify for the program based on their family income.

But in New Jersey, legislators are working on a bill that would expand free breakfast and lunch for many students from low-income and middle-class families even as the federal funding vanishes.

State Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, co-sponsored the Working Class Families’ Anti-Hunger Act, which would make more than 26,000 additional New Jersey students eligible for the state’s free or reduced-cost breakfast and lunch program.

“The goal here is to feed everyone who we can,” Coughlin said in a phone interview. Although the federal waiver is set to expire soon, he noted, “there’s never been a time when it is not urgent to feed people.”

Families who are at 185% of the federal poverty level currently qualify for free school lunch. If enacted, the bill would increase eligibility to those at 200% of the poverty level.

That means a family of four that earns about $55,500 or less would qualify for free school lunch in New Jersey if the proposal becomes law, under the federal poverty guidelines.

Under the current federal program, a family of four would have to earn less than $51,338 a year to qualify for free lunch. The minimum income levels vary based on how many people are in a family.

The bill, A2368, which recently passed in the Assembly, is part of a larger legislative package of bills that aim to combat hunger. An identical bill was introduced in the Senate, but has not come up for a vote yet before the full Senate.

If the bill becomes law, the expanded free lunch program is expected to cost New Jersey taxpayers about $19.2 million a year, according to an estimate by the state’s Office of Legislative Services.

Students may turn down free breakfast or lunch because of the stigma attached to it, Coughlin said. So, by expanding the program to higher income levels, students may find it easier to accept the free food.

Properly fed students also perform better in school, he added.

“This is closer to a moral obligation than a governmental function,” he said.

At the start of the pandemic in 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released nutritional waivers, allowing previously ineligible districts to opt into the free lunch program and receive federal reimbursem*nt, entitling any student to free meals.

According to the USDA, 90% of school food authorities across the country used the waivers during the pandemic, Education Week reported.

For some districts in New Jersey, the pending legislation to expand free lunch to more student would change little because most or all of their students already qualify for free meals.

All students in Paterson are already eligible for free breakfast and lunch through a federal government program for low-income communities, said Paul Brubaker, a spokesman for the district.

In Newark, students were not charged for meals prior to COVID and will not be charged after the end of federally-funded universal lunch, according to school district spokeswoman Nancy Deering.

But other districts are shifting their lunch programs in preparation for the end of federally-funded universal free lunch.

Warren Township, a district in Somerset County, opted into the National School Lunch Program this past school year, and faced criticism from parents for doing so. In late April, the district’s Board of Education ended its involvement in the program and is looking into solutions for lunch for the upcoming school year, business administrator Christopher Heagele said.

In Ocean County, Toms River Regional Schools is returning to its pre-pandemic setup for lunch, said Mike Kenny, a district spokesman.

The district is working to inform families that free meals for all is expiring June 30, he said. They’re also emphasizing families should complete and submit 2022-2023 applications for free and reduced price school meals because eligibility may be expanded in New Jersey if the bill becomes law.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

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Brianna Kudisch may be reached at bkudisch@njadvancemedia.com.

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Universal free lunch is ending in schools. This plan could bring it back for some N.J. kids. (2024)
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