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School meals are essential for so many ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ children, providing over 132,000,000 meals a year. For many children, it is often the only meal they receive in a day. We all know that hungry children cannot learn, so it may surprise you that the recent budget reconciliation bill passed in the US House of Representatives includes substantial Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid cuts that impact access to free school meals.

At Tucson Unified School District, we are grateful to be able to offer free breakfast and lunch to 40,000 students across our 87 schools. These free meals are possible through the Community Eligibility Provision of the National School Lunch Program, which allows schools serving large numbers of children from low-income families to qualify and offer school meals at no charge to all students.

Since expanding CEP to all 87 schools in TUSD in January 2024, TUSD has experienced the benefits of all students having access to free meals at all our schools. More students are eating breakfast and lunch. This results in increased consumption of healthy meals meeting nutritional requirements of the school meal programs consisting of whole grains, lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, and low-fat milk. These programs eliminate the reality of food insecurities that many families and children face every day as well as not having sufficient funds to purchase school meals. The embarrassment or insecurity related to food access should not be a concern children experience while at school. There are additional related challenges for staff and the community to work through which CEP prevents.

With CEP, school districts no longer must create meal charge policies that result in either school meal debt or children being left hungry. Prior to TUSD being able to expand CEP to all schools, there was just under $400,000 in meal debt in one semester. The district’s meal charge policy was updated to address the tremendous growing meal debt by removing the ability of high school students to charge meals. If the students did not have lunch money, they could receive a piece of fruit and string cheese. These are the unfortunate realities and decisions districts, and governing boards, are faced with when having to address meal debt. Thanks to CEP, students going hungry because they do not have lunch money or only have the option of string cheese and fruit for lunch is no longer a reality.

Growing children being properly nourished with the nutrition they need to learn, focus, and be present is a crucial resource for students. Providing such a vital resource through school meal programs that support learning and academic achievement, in addition to health and wellness, is a resource that should be supported and available to all students. CEP results in all students receiving consistent access to healthy meals to support their academic success.

In late May the US House of Representatives voted to cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid and SNAP, both of which are used to determine the underlying formula that qualifies children to receive free and reduced meal benefits, as well as qualifying schools to be eligible to operate CEP. Cuts to SNAP and Medicaid will affect individual student eligibility for school meals as well as schools qualifying for CEP. Currently about 60% of students at TUSD live in households participating in SNAP and/or receive health insurance through Medicaid for which they automatically qualify for free school meals.

TUSD currently has just under 25,000 students that may be at risk of losing SNAP and/or Medicaid benefits, resulting in less students qualifying for free school meals. Thus, resulting in less schools qualifying for CEP which directly contributes to the success of our students. We need to ensure lawmakers understand the harmful impacts these cuts to SNAP and Medicaid will have on school meals. Investing in school meals is an investment in children’s health and education.