California will permanently begin providing free school meals for students this fall in a move that many advocates are praising as a big step toward ending food insecurity.
The state says it will be the first in the nation to make free meals permanent for all public school students, regardless of their family’s income.
“No questions. No stigma. ALL California kids now have access to free meals at schools,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted last week,
Universal free lunch programs ensure no one falls through the cracks and eliminate the stigma associated with qualifying for free or reduced-price meals because of family income, the coalition said.
“California has made history,” Kat Taylor, co-founder of the TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation and co-sponsor of School Meals for All, said in a news release. “As the first state in the nation to adopt universal school meals, California is giving kids a better shot at growing up healthy and ready to succeed.”
School officials across the state also commended the news.
Studies show it is actually cheaper giving every child a free meal than it is to have employees that handle, and figure out who gets free lunch and who don’t.
since they have no money just wondering what they will be served
Better to feed them now and try to make something of them than feed them for life in prison.