Fetterman praises free school meals, but action unlikely this year 

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics and Research Subcommittee, gave a strong endorsement to universal free school meals on Wednesday, but acknowledged that it’s unlikely that Congress will act this year to make school meals free nationwide.

Fetterman focused the hearing on universal free school meals, saying, “It should be simple. School lunch should always be free — and definitely free from judgment. Honestly this shouldn’t even be a conversation. It’d be like asking kids to pay for the school bus every morning.”

Fetterman also pointed out  that the universal free school meals eliminates the problem of school lunch debt, which occurs when students do not pay for lunch, but the school system allows them to eat.

“‘School lunch debt’ is a phrase so absurd it shouldn’t even exist,” said Fetterman, whose office said school meal debt now stands at $262 million.

But in a brief interview after the hearing, Fetterman acknowledged that action is unlikely in this session of Congress because “we’re headed toward the end of the year.” In the interview, Fetterman added that his “dream” is that charging children for school meals “becomes a thing of the past.”

A series of witnesses supported Fetterman’s commitment to universal free school meals, which the federal government paid for during the pandemic. But as pandemic spending programs ended, Republicans refused to support free school meals for all and Congress put back a system in which children from lower income families can get meals at reduced prices or free, but their families have to fill out forms with income information.

Nichole Taylor, director of food and nutrition in the Chichester School District, Upper Chichester, Pa., testified that some students avoid the cafeteria or pull out of the meal subsidy program, choosing to go hungry rather than face the embarrassment of receiving a free meal.

Crystal FitzSimons, the interim president of the Food Research & Action Center testified that the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which allows schools in high-need areas to offer free meals to all students, results in higher student participation in school mealtime, less administrative burden, the elimination of unpaid meal debts, reduced stigma, and a better overall school atmosphere.

Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said his state’s universal free breakfasts increased participation rates.

Fetterman has introduced the School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act, which would direct the USDA to pay all debts owed to schools for lunch or breakfast programs, and joined Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., to introduce the School Hunger Elimination Act and the Nutrition Red Tape Reduction Act, aiming to expand access to free and reduced-price meals for millions of students. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind. the subcommittee ranking member, avoided getting involved in the issue of whether school meals should be universally free.

Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., lamented that his state of Georgia had declined to participate in the Summer EBT program, which provided $120 in purchasing power to the families of low income children.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said he had introduced  the Safe School Meals Act (SSMA), which would place limits on heavy metals, ban certain pesticide residues, trigger the safety reassessment of food additives including artificial food dyes that have been linked with health harms, and ban the use of PFAS, phthalates, and bisphenols in school meal food packaging. The bill would increase the funding available for schools to purchase safe school meals.

Booker also said more alternatives must be found to the serving of dairy products in the schools.

A subtheme of the hearing was the forms of fruits and vegetables that school children eat. Kay Swartz Rentzel, who is executive director of several food processing organizations, testified in favor of the use of “all forms” of fruits and vegetables, not just fresh fruits and vegetables.

“It is undeniable that programs favoring fresh-only fruit and vegetable options harm American farmers and inadvertently incentivize, if not subsidize, foreign food imports,” Rentzel said. “This dynamic is one of the key factors behind the United States becoming a net food importer for the first time in its history in 2023.” Only fresh fruits and vegetables are allowed in a school snack program, but other forms may be used in other school meals programs.