WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Three U.S. Senators have introduced a bill that would cancel student lunch debt across the nation.
Senator John Fetterman, alongside Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Peter Welch (D-VT), introduced the "School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act" last week.
“‘School lunch debt’ is a term so absurd that it shouldn’t even exist," Sen. John Fetterman said in a press release. "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."
“It’s time to come together and stop playing political games with American’s access to food. September is Hunger Action Month and I’m proud to be introducing this bill to help working families now, while we work to move our other priorities to combat food insecurity in our nation," he continued.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, federal lawmakers made the move to provide free lunch for every public school student in America. That specific program expired last fall, but many states have been rolling out their own universal free school meals programs and have seen sizable results.
Even schools that don’t offer free meals usually won’t turn away hungry students; instead, they will feed them and collect payment later, leading to “school lunch debt.”
There are over 30 million children in the U.S. who can’t afford their school meals, which contributes to the national public school meal debt totaling a staggering $262 million a year.
In Pennsylvania alone, there are nearly half a million food-insecure children who collectively owe nearly $80 million in debt.
Meanwhile, child poverty in the United States more than doubled last year, while the average household income declined.
This bill is meant to ease the financial burden on working families by directing the USDA to pay for all debts owed to schools for lunch or breakfast programs.
