Every Child's School Lunch Debt Would Be Totally Eliminated Under This New Bill

Millions of families across the U.S. can’t afford their children’s school lunch. Some schools have taken punitive measures like withholding hot lunch until their cafeteria debts have been paid, while some students have used their allowance to cancel their classmates’ debts. Now, Senate Democrats are attempting to take this issue into the government’s hands and introduced a new bill that would eliminate all student lunch debt nationwide.

This week, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), and Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) introduced the School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act, which would cancel the national public school meal debt of approximately $262 million.

“‘School lunch debt’ is a term so absurd that it shouldn’t even exist. That’s why I’m proud to introduce this bill to cancel the nation’s student meal debt and stop humiliating kids and penalizing hunger,” Fetterman said in a statement. “It’s time to come together and stop playing political games with American’s access to food.”

Whitehouse added that no child in America should be “should be penalized for not being able to afford school lunch. It’s that simple.” The Rhode Island senator said the bill “will eliminate lunch debt in schools, supporting every child’s access to a healthy meal and positioning them for long-term success.”

During the pandemic, Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which included a waiver that provided every student in the U.S. with free lunch. While the government extended this access for the next two school years, it was not renewed in 2023.

In 2023, millions of children rely on school lunch and breakfast programs. The School Nutrition Association notes that one in eight children in the U.S. do not have “consistent access to adequate food.” Over 30 million children can’t afford school lunch and the average meal debt for each child every year is around $180, according to the Education Data Initiative. A number of states have passed laws making school lunch and breakfast free for all children, but it’s not a practice nationwide.

On Sept. 26, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) expanded access to free meals for all students in approximately 3,000 more schools in “high-need areas,” reaching an estimated 5 million students, PBS News Hour reports. Still, many students carry a school lunch debt and the lawmakers behind this new bill say it will “ease the financial burden on working families by directing the USDA to pay for all debts owed to schools for lunch or breakfast programs.”

“Our students shouldn’t have to worry about how they’re paying for lunch — full stop. I’m proud to partner with my colleagues Senators Fetterman and Whitehouse on this commonsense bill, and urge my colleagues to stand with us,” Welch said in a statement. “We have a duty to ensure that every student — in Vermont, and across America — is supported and respected.”