More kids could see free or reduced-price school lunches for the next two school years if a recently introduced bill makes it through the upcoming legislative session.
Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, filed the bill that would increase the minimum threshold to 250% of the federal poverty level for students to qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch. For a family of four, the income threshold would be around $78,000.
The effort would help an additional 150,000 children qualify for the program. Approximately 425,000 Oklahoma children currently receive reduced-price or free lunches, according to Hunger Free Oklahoma CEO Chris Bernard.
Hicks said she and several other legislators, including now former Rep. Jeff Boatman, introduced similar bills in past sessions, but she and Bernard said none of them made it past the Senate Education Committee or other House committees.
At least four bills have been filed in the last two years that would have made some impact on school lunches and all have died in the House or the Senate. Former Sen. Roger Thompson, a Republican from Okemah, successfully passed his bill to create a universal electronic form for families to apply for the discounts.
Last January, Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, told Oklahoma Voice he and most members of the Senate Education Committee didn’t support the state taking on the cost of expanding free meals in schools after the federal pandemic program ended in June 2022.
Bernard pointed out about one in four kids live with food insecurity, which is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a “household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.”
Currently, Oklahoma families who live below 130% of the federal poverty line are eligible to receive free lunches, while those who live below 185% are eligible to receive reduced-price lunches.
But Hicks said the gap is widening due to increases in grocery costs and cost of living, plus rising poverty levels.
“We know that hungry kids can’t learn, and so by increasing the threshold for kids to be able to have meals while they’re in school will absolutely improve our academics because we know that kids won’t be worried about where their next meal is coming from,” Hicks said.
Hicks said the bill is focused more on rural districts that don’t qualify for categorical eligibility based on their student body enrollment. She said the goal is to make sure kids in every part of the state are getting the same consideration when it comes to having full meals.
Larger districts, such as Oklahoma City Public Schools, have a majority of their students already qualified for free or reduced-price lunches because they’re a Title 1 school, or schools that receive more federal funding to assist low-income families. About 81% of students at Oklahoma City Public Schools qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, according to Hunger Free Oklahoma.
“It’s also just such a shame that we’ve seen all kinds of initiatives statewide trying to take care of school lunch debt so that students can graduate,” Hicks said. “I think it’s a terrible position to put children in and we ought to be willing, as a community, to step forward and understand that there’s a widening gap and we need to take care of kids in order to make sure that we have a bright future.”
When Hicks was a teacher, she said she saw kids receiving a cheese sandwich for lunch if they had an outstanding lunch debt. She noted that often creates a stigma related to the student’s family finances.
Bernard mentioned an Arkansas bill in 2023 that covered all reduced-price meals in full for a school year.
“That’s a huge impact for families so that they can make ends meet rather than going into debt each month, whether it’s on school meals or whether it’s on not making decisions between the light bill and rent, all those challenges that pop up when you’re living on the margins,” he said.
Taking a step into offering universal free meals would be an even bigger effort, which Tulsa Public Schools implemented this school year, but Bernard said helping more kids is where all minds can come together. Mid-Del Public Schools offered free breakfast and lunch this school year, ending the need for parents to submit applications to participate in a free or reduced-meal program.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Sen. Carri Hicks files bill to give more kids free, reduced-price lunch