Federal Bill May Increase Food Insecurity in Low-Income Communities
A bill up for consideration in the House Education and Workforce Committee would severely restrict high-poverty schools’ eligibility to provide meals at no charge to their students, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The report finds that a measure in the child nutrition reauthorization bill would affect more than 7,000 high-poverty schools serving 3.4 million students, forcing them to reapply for community eligibility, a status permitting a school to serve free meals to all students. The authors argue that this measure would impose an unnecessary burden on schools and would deny affordable food to millions of students.