New bill would provide qualifying students with free school meals

SALT LAKE CITY — A bill this legislative session is setting its sights on free school meals.

Bill sponsor Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Salt Lake City, told Dave & Dujanovic that the bill sponsors are trying to fill gaps in existing free and reduced meal programs.

Gaps in existing programs

“If the program is accruing somewhere in the range of $2 to $3 million of school lunch debt every year, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What’s the underlying problem?… Kids are going hungry in the class.”

Much of that debt is coming from families who qualify for reduced lunches, according to Clancy.

“These are families that a couple of years ago we probably would have considered middle class. But because of inflation, and particularly at the grocery store, food insecurity is hitting families that we haven’t seen before.”

Clancy said the bill would ask for a range between $2 million to $5 million to help cover the gap.

The money would go toward covering the costs for families in the reduced-price category. It would also help with a program that covers lunch for students in the summer.

“So, what they would have received in benefits at the school, making sure that the summer doesn’t become a pain point for those families and they can continue their path into self-sufficiency. 

Clancy said he’s not trying to create a whole new program or overwhelm schools. 

“The school lunch program already exists. What I’m saying is the idea of the school lunch program is to provide that assistance to families who are in need and we’re recognizing that we’re not quite hitting that mark.”

The bill will help make the most out of the $6 billion investment the state is already making into public education, Clancy said.

Stigma over free school meals 

The bill also addresses the stigma students might feel about getting free school meals. Schools would not be allowed to “publicly identify or stigmatize a student unable to pay for a meal,” according to the current bill language.

“We’ve heard a range of stories of having a different colored lunch tray or wearing a sticker. The shame that’s involved with that, we want to eliminate that.”

The bill would also prevent schools from making any students do chores to pay for a meal.

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