January 2024
Free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch for school children is a well-known program administered through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Before Covid-19, free or reduced-price school meals were usually available only to students who met income requirements or attended schools that qualified for certain alternative calculation methods designed for low-income areas.
During the height of COVID, from March 2020 through the 2021-22 school year, all students were offered free meals through school because of waivers issued by the USDA. For two years, nearly 1 million students ate free each year.
On September 30, 2022, the USDA pandemic waiver that allowed students to eat school meals for free expired.
California and Maine were the first states to provide permanent programs for universal free school meals. Vermont, Nevada and Massachusetts extended no-cost breakfast and lunch to all students for the current school year. Pennsylvania extended universal free breakfast through the 2022-2023 school years.
Several other states, including Missouri, are considering programs to provide free meals to students. Representative Seitz introduced legislation during the 2023 session to provide one free breakfast and one free lunch each day the student attends public school, beginning in the 2023-2024 school year. House Bill 172 did not pass.
Representative Mosely introduced legislation during the 2024 session. You can follow the progress of House Bill 2392 at https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/mo/2024/bills/MOB00022307/?report-bill-view=1.
