This National School Lunch Week, we’re spotlighting an urgent issue: hundreds of thousands of full-time online public school students who otherwise qualify for school meals benefits do not receive them due to an antiquated National School Lunch Program policy that requires school meals to be served only in a congregate setting. 

Today, we’re previewing findings from an upcoming white paper we’ve co-sponsored with The Community Advancing Digital Learning on the importance of modernizing the National School Lunch Program. 

One in every hundred public school students is eligible for free or reduced-price meals but is unable to participate because federal rules exclude them. These students attend virtual public schools, a choice their families have made in keeping with the White House’s Executive Order “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families.” In responding to that order, a senior Department of Education official said, “federal taxpayer dollars should support the best education outcomes for students regardless of where they attend school.” 

When the National School Lunch Act was passed by Congress in 1946, “lunch served in school” meant in a “congregate setting.” With perhaps a million public school students attending school online and many others in the thousands of public schools with four-day weeks or other flexible schedules, the concept of “lunch served in school” requires a modern definition. Billions of nutritious non-congregate school meals were provided during the COVID-19 pandemic. Congress has made non-congregate meals permanently available in the summer through SUN Bucks, and the Senate Appropriations Committee has called on the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service “to expand access to non-congregate meal programs.”

Almost three-fourths of public school students today have access to free or reduced-price meals, and students in virtual schools are just as likely to face hunger and food insecurity. Families of students attending virtual schools - often because of safety, bullying, or health or other special needs - describe sharp food-budget pressure as a consequence. One parent shared that when their children enrolled in virtual school, “My grocery bill definitely tripled in price. Some bills got left behind, and I had to start a payment plan.” Another shared, “I tried sending my son back to public school because I couldn’t afford groceries.”

Expanding educational freedom and opportunity for families means “federal taxpayer dollars should support the best education outcomes for students regardless of where they attend school.” The National School Lunch Program was established almost eighty years ago “to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s children.” In the decades since, Congress and the federal government have collaborated repeatedly to extend and modernize school nutrition programs and improve student participation. It's time to modernize again and give states the flexibility they need to let half a million excluded public school kids eat school lunch.

Stay tuned for more information about the white paper’s release.

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