ELECTIONS, POLITICS, & GOVERNMENT
Newly signed bill will allow more Utah students to qualify for free lunches
Mar 27, 2025, 6:00 PM
HB100, signed this week by Utah Governor Spencer Cox, will allow an additional 40,000 students in Utah to receive free lunches.(Canva)
(Canva)
SALT LAKE CITY — More Utah students will qualify for free lunches under a newly signed bill.
HB100, signed this week by Gov. Cox, will allow an additional 40,000 students in Utah to receive free lunches. Currently many students who need free lunches do not qualify for federal assistance and can’t afford the extra $.40 per day that a reduced price lunch costs.
The bill aims to help those students. Now families who make up to around $58 thousand dollars a year will qualify.
Children up to the 6th grade currently receiving reduced-price lunches will now get those lunches for free.
Emily Bell McCormick, with The Policy Project said one in six children in Utah are hungry.
“Many of these kids are kids not receiving any time of federal government assistance. And so there’s a strong desire to ensure that these families are supported, that they have access to this food,” said McCormick.
Not just free lunches
Bill sponsor Rep. Tyler Clancy (R-Utah) said the bill also instructs schools to end practices that spread shame and stigmatize students from low-income families.
“Making sure that they don’t have to wear a button or they don’t have to wear a different colored lunch tray as they are going in. Those are obstacles and barriers to have student participate in the programs we already fund,” said Clancy.
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