Connecticut lawmakers and advocates called on the legislature to pass a bill to keep meals free for K-12 students in need, ahead of an Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday.
Connecticut students can typically qualify for free meals outright, or for reduced prices. But last August, Governor Ned Lamont announced that students who qualify for reduced meals would eat lunch for free.
To qualify for free meals, a family's income must be below 130% of the Federal Poverty Level. For a family of four, that’s $40,560 a year or lower.
To qualify for reduced meals, a family’s income must be between 130-185% of the Federal Poverty Level. For a family of four, that means an income of $57,720 a year or lower.
Students at Community Eligibility Provision schools, located in the state’s high-need districts, eat for free without having to qualify financially.
This school year (2023-24), students who fell into either category ate lunch for free. Breakfast is currently free for all students living in a district that serves it.
The program is funded by $16 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. But that money will expire at the end of this school year — and the state may not be prepared to replace it.
State Representative Gary Turco (D-Newington) said colleagues told him that fiscal guardrails keep the state from fully funding the initiative.
“I won't speak for all of my colleagues, but I know there are many in this building that will say, I will vote tomorrow to give more flexibility and amend the fiscal guardrails to feed Connecticut's children,” Turco said. “Nothing is more important than feeding our children.”
The state's fiscal guardrails, or spending caps, are supposed to keep the state from spending money faster than its taxpayers can make it. Lamont and Republican leaders have been hesitant to adjust the guardrails. Democrats do not agree.
On Tuesday, lawmakers said they were more concerned with funding free lunches for students who meet the guidelines than funding the free breakfast program.
“There's been some language changes from the appropriations bill, that is kind of not speaking to the lunch piece, the reduced meal piece,” Representative Moira Rader (D-Branford) said. “And that's what we're going to be talking about advocating for because the concern is that they will only provide that funding for the universal free breakfast, and they won't address those reduced meal costs.”
Steven LePage is a superintendent for Regional School District 7, which is located in Winsted and serves Barkhamsted, Colebrook, New Hartford and Norfolk. He said his district saw a 60% increase in meals served because of the program.
“There's a concept of universal design for learning where you make all the resources for learning accessible within a classroom, whether it's pencils, or paper or computers, the things that students need to really succeed in the classroom,” LePage said. “I can't think of a more universal need than food, good food and nutrition for our students to be able to participate in all that they need to do throughout a very lengthy school day.”
Governor Ned Lamont’s proposed budget includes just over $11 million for school meals — that would keep breakfast free for more than 150 districts.
