Whitmer campaigns to continue free school meals

"Every year, families wonder whether we're going to be able to count on this again going into the school year," she said. "It's one more way we can help families keep more money in their pockets and help contribute to better success in school outcomes. It's really remarkable, so I think we need to make this permanent."…

https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2026-03-04/whitmer-campaigns-to-continue-free-school-meals 

 

Donald Trump Falls Asleep During Milk Bill Signing | Paula Poundstone

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5R4t2iOq9zE

 

Trump administration ‘villainizes’ immigrant families with misleading directive on food aid

"That nugget of misinformation from the secretary", he said, is like a seed that will continue to grow, so that people start "thinking undocumented immigrants are getting benefits they're not".…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/20/trump-food-stamps-snap-school-lunch-immigration

 

 

Local food for schools helps farmers and kids. So why is Trump cutting funding?

Agriculture department cuts to funding for local food in school meals betrays growers, kids and collective wellbeing…

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/19/farm-to-school-meals-funding-cut

 

 

 

Democrats unveil school lunch debt cancellation measure

"'School lunch debt' is a term so absurd that is shouldn't even exist. I'm proud to lead the fight to cancel our nation's school meal debt – it's long past time to stop humiliating kids and penalizing hunger," Fetterman said…https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5192757-school-meal-debt-cancellation-bill/

USDA cancels $1B in local food purchasing for schools, food banks - POLITICO

States have been notified that they will not receive 2025 funding for schools to buy food from nearby farms… 

The Trump administration's move to halt the programs comes as school nutrition officials are becoming increasingly anxious about affording healthy food with the current federal reimbursement rate for meals. As food costs have risen in the last few years, more people are turning to food banks and other feeding organizations to supplement their increased grocery bills. 

"Donald Trump and Elon Musk have declared that feeding children and supporting local farmers are no longer 'priorities,' and it's just the latest terrible cut with real impact on families across Massachusetts," Healey said in a statement…

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/10/usda-cancels-local-food-purchasing-for-schools-food-banks-00222796

Michigan governor’s budget promises free education, GOP says plan doesn’t provide ‘real value’ | PBS NewsHour

Whitmer said that the two priorities that guided her budget proposal this year were "lowering people's costs and growing Michigan's economy." Her office estimates that free breakfast and lunch for Michigan's 1.4 million public school students will save families an average of $850 a year and free community college will save families an average of $4,820…

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/michigan-governors-budget-promises-free-education-gop-says-plan-doesnt-provide-real-value

Elizabeth Warren SLAMS The GOP's Disgusting Stunt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDp_fytbZ8M

Chris Murphy DESTROYS Ted Cruz's Hateful Stunt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF7QneHR9B4

How 8 US States Pay for Free Lunch for Public School Students

While many states fund their programs through state budgets, Massachusetts joins a few states that find more creative ways to pay for free meals. Its 4% millionaire tax, which is on income, is different from President Joe Biden's billionaires' tax proposal from February, which is aimed at wealth. 

Colorado, the one state that doesn't require school districts to participate, handles the funding of universal free lunch through a voter-passed tax measure. The state's Healthy School Meals for All program passed 55.1% to 44.9% in 2022, reduces income tax deductions for households earning $300,000 or more to fund its meals, AP said. 

And Vermont's free meals program, which was allowed through in June 2023 by Gov. Phil Scott despite him opposing it and not signing it, according to Vermont Public — will result in a $0.03 increase in the property tax rate…

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-states-pay-free-lunch-public-school-students-heres-how-2023-8

Sanders, Omar Lead Charge to Ensure No Child Goes Hungry at School Again

"We cannot continue to prop up a grossly unjust economy in which the very rich get richer while millions of working families struggle to afford the most basic necessities of life, from paying for rent and medications to feeding their children," said Sanders. 

"Kids cannot learn if they are hungry and every child deserves a quality education free of hunger. What we've seen during this pandemic is that a universal approach to school meals works. We cannot go backwards. It is time for Congress to pass this legislation to ensure no student goes hungry again."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-omar-school-meals

Calls Mount for US to Provide Free School Meals to All Children

"When schools adopt universal meals through community eligibility or another program, we see improvements in students' academic performance, behavior, attendance, and psychosocial functioning," wrote De La Cour, whose reporting also includes parent and cafeteria worker perspectives. "Above all, the implementation of universal meals causes meal participation to shoot up, demonstrating that the need far exceeds the number of kids who are able to get certified."…

https://www.commondreams.org/news/universal-free-school-meals-congress

GOP senator considering blocking school meal funding deal over transgender policy fight - POLITICO

The USDA guidance, however, is only aimed at programs that receive federal nutrition money, not other aspects of school policy that may affect LGBTQ students. A USDA official emphasized that the administration wouldn't pull funding from a school lunch program just because the state has restrictive laws around sports or bathroom access for transgender kids, nor because a school lacks an LGBTQ policy. Rather, individuals could only file complaints if they've been discriminated against by the specific school lunch program based on gender identity — for example, if they were denied food because they were transgender.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/22/gop-senator-considering-blocking-school-meal-funding-deal-over-transgender-policy-fight-00041366

How Trump uses a crisis: Repeal rules while nobody is looking - The Washington Post

Regulations affecting school lunches and the environment are being gutted....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/09/how-trump-uses-crisis-repeal-rules-while-nobody-is-looking/

US government basically declares war on millions of school children | TheHill

In Dickens’ “Oliver Twist,” children in a 19th century London workhouse are fed the smallest amounts of the cheapest foods to maximize the profit accrued by the owners. In Hansel and Gretel, a witch lures the children into her gingerbread home then works to fatten Hansel up for the dinner table. The U.S. government has initiated a double-barreled attack on the health and nutrition of our school children using the same sinister strategies previously employed by workhouses and witches. The USDA is trying to deny essential food access to over half a million children by modifying the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). ....
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/480400-us-government-basically-declares-war-on-millions-of-school-children

New rule may end free lunches for 500,000 needy schoolchildren - The Washington Post

The plan is intended to cut eligibility among families considered less needy.....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trump-administration-rule-could-end-free-school-lunches-for-about-500000-children/2019/09/24/4c488f66-def1-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html

500,000 kids will lose free school lunch under Trump administration plan - Daily Kos

The Trump administration left important information out of its latest attempt to take food aid from millions of poor people: The plan would potentially strip around 500,000 kids of free school lunches. But while the Trump administration was up-front about the 3.1 million people who would be stripped of food stamps under its plan, it didn't bother to mention what would specifically happen to children. ....
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/7/29/1875152/-500-000-kids-will-lose-free-school-lunch-under-Trump-administration-plan

School lunch shaming: Inside America's hidden debt crisis

Kids who don't have money to pay for their school lunch often have their tray taken. It's called school lunch shaming, and there's a campaign to end it. ...
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/09/news/economy/school-lunch-shaming-debt-crisis/index.html

The Daily Caller Is Totally Wrong About Michelle Obama’s School Lunches

Last week, the Daily Caller published a piece decrying Michelle Obama’s push to improve the nutrition of government-funded school meals across the country. Based off of a recent study out of Virginia Tech, which found that children who are most likely to be overweight also tend to be those that participate in school meal programs, the Daily Caller concluded that “First lady Michelle Obama’s school lunch program is making the poorer children it’s supposed to help more likely to become overweight.”

There’s just one problem: The data used in the Virginia Tech study, which was funded in part by the USDA, ends in 2007 — five years before the first round of new school lunch standards went into place, three years before Congress passed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, and two years before Barack Obama was officially sworn is as president.

In short, the data from the Virginia Tech study has absolutely nothing to do with Michelle Obama’s school meals program — and actually shows how much reform for school nutrition was needed....
https://thinkprogress.org/michelle-obamas-school-lunches-arent-making-you-fat-f7f631075236#.b6u216ws5

This Bill Could Make More Kids Obese—and No One Is Talking About It

You probably haven't heard much about it with the presidential election sucking up all the oxygen, but US lawmakers are mulling one of the nation's most important and influential pieces of food legislation: a once-every-five-years bill that sets the budget and rules for school meals. And it hasn't been a very appetizing process.

In a recent episode of Bite—the new podcast I host with colleagues Kiera Butler and Maddie Oatman—the excellent school lunch analyst and blogger Bettina Elias Siegel lamented that there's no push to increase our miserly annual outlay on the lunch program, which serves about 30.5 million kids each school day. Currently, we spend about $13 billion in federal dollars on it each year—equal to about 2 percent of annual defense spending. That leaves cafeteria administrators with a bit more than a dollar per meal to spend on ingredients, leading to generally dismal-quality food, often served reheated from a box....
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/04/house-plot-push-junk-food-back-school-cafeterias-looks-doomed-fail