Congress got rid of a free lunch for all program. That means some students are going hungry
“As schools around the country reopen after winter break, their students are being reminded of the lunch debt they’ve racked up this school year – an ugly reality that follows the end of federal assistance that paid for school meals for more than 50 million students during the pandemic. Congress ended the free-lunch-for-all program in June, reverting to a system in which low-income families had to fill out paperwork to qualify for aid based on their income. But some families have been left behind because they do not understand the application process, and others are rejected because they do not qualify. A family of four must earn about $36,000 a year or less to qualify for free lunch. Schools often feed these students, requiring them to pay later and creating a debt many families cannot pay down. For some children, the debt can get so big that schools stop giving them a full meal.”