BY SUSAN TEBBEN
A co-sponsor of a new bipartisan bill to give Ohio public school students free meals is hoping to see it included as a priority in the state’s two-year operating budget due July 1.
State Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Twp., said the newest move to get the state to pay for all students to have free breakfast and lunch at school is similar to Senate Bill 342, which he and co-sponsor Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, introduced in the last General Assembly.
“It’s such a great idea, it’s a public good,” Blessing told the Capital Journal.
S.B. 342 had other aims, such as increasing the Local Government Fund and modifying funding for the Low and Moderate-Income Housing Trust Fund, along with the goal of total eligibility for student meals, so when Blessing and Smith brought back the idea in the new General Assembly, simplicity won out.
“To me, this should be a no-brainer,” Blessing said.
Under the new bill, Senate Bill 109, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce would be directed to reimburse public and chartered nonpublic schools who participated in the National School Breakfast Program to cover the gap between the federal reimbursements for free and reduced-price breakfasts and lunches, along with covering those who would be required to pay because they don’t qualify for meal assistance. The bill lists an appropriation of $300 million to support the reimbursements.
Blessing and Smith plan to push for the bill to be included in the new two-year state operating budget due July 1, currently under negotiation in the Ohio House, though Blessing hopes to have at least one hearing in the Senate Finance Committee “to say this is great policy.”
Polling as recently as last year in Ohio showed vast public support for a universal free school breakfast and lunch program in a state where 1 in 6 children live in households that struggle to keep food on the table. A 2023 report from the advocacy group Children’s Defense Fund Ohio found that 1 in 3 children who live in those homes don’t qualify for free school meals.
School nutrition administrators spoke to the legislature during the last round of budget negotiations, telling stories of student meal debt putting them in the difficult position of keeping students from receiving a hot meal, and perpetuating the stigma that comes with students identified as free or reduced-lunch eligible.
Support for universal school breakfast and lunch comes as the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee contemplates cuts that could impact the Community Eligibility Provision, which works within the federal National School Lunch Program in high-poverty areas to provide no-cost meals to students who qualify. Schools qualify based on the rates of participation the school students and families have in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
The national Food Research & Action Center found that the proposed changes to the eligibility provision on the federal level could impact more than 280,000 Ohio students and 728 schools.
Blessing acknowledged there was pushback about paying for the state-level measure in the last operating budget. But he countered the argument by saying the measure could be paid for by increasing some taxes, such as the severance tax.
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“I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the House or the Senate that puts a significant income tax cut in (the new budget), and that’s money out the door right there that could have paid for this,” Blessing said.
In the previous state operating budget, $4 million was included to extend free meals to those who qualified for reduced-price breakfast and lunch for the 2023-2024 school year. But attempts at universal eligibility didn’t make it to the final draft.
For Blessing, a bill that gives school-aged kids two meals a day addresses campaign promises that were made to ease the costs for everyday Ohioans and Americans.
“Right, wrong or indifferent, Trump was elected because there was a cost-of-living crisis,” Blessing said. “I would hope that we would deliver on this to help with that. It should matter to everyone.”
