As a parent, I get a lot of notices from my children’s school. The school sends letters home, they email me and they call me. It can be a bit much at times and I understand why they do it, but still. One of the more annoying notices is the emails I receive about my negative account balances for lunch purchases.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s annoying that my kids would rather spend money at school than eat the food we have at home. As a parent, I am trying to save as much as I can since the price of food is soaring, but I digress. With that said, if my kids want to get breakfast and lunch at school, then they should. But I have three kids and the bill to feed them adds up every week.

Many parents are going through the same struggle.

Some parents cannot afford to pay for breakfast and lunch for their kids and schools have shown an absolute willingness to penalize and shame students and parents for carrying balances on their food accounts. During the period when our nation was dealing with the covid-19 outbreak, students across the country were given free meals — all students, no matter their socioeconomic background and/or circumstances.

But that ended with the start of the current school year.

The federal government discontinued the policy of free lunch for all in March. Advocates urged Congress to keep funding school nutrition programs at higher levels. But Congress did not include that money in the $1.5 trillion spending bill House and Senate lawmakers passed in March 2022. Prior to the pandemic, 30 million lunches were sold to students daily. However, during the 2021-2022 school year, more than 80 million meals were given to students daily. 

The result of this change: meal debt.

School officials say this year, meal debt is reaching levels they have never seen. A recent survey from the School Nutrition Association found school districts had more than $19 million in unpaid meal debt, with the Midwest and Great Plains reporting the highest rates of meal debt.

Suspending the free meals program initiated during the pandemic was the wrong decision by the federal government.

Research shows that making school meals free for everyone improves attendance and boosts diet quality. It also decreases the risk of food insecurity and the stigma associated with receiving a free meal. When no one has to pay, the growing problem of school meal debt is eliminated.

Because students aren’t given meals universally, schools provide free or reduced-priced meals for students and families in need. However, I can tell you as an educator, the process isn’t the greatest. Some students and families do fall through the cracks, and that means kids show up at school hungry for lunch but with no way to pay for it.

I get the argument that universal meals for all students put meals in the hands of students who don’t need the support of free meals. But it’s a flawed argument. It’s flawed because public goods are items or services the public collectively pays for that the public collectively benefits from — like public education. The wealthy can pay for the education of their children if they wish. But the benefit of a free education for their children does not harm children that aren’t as fortunate.

The sad truth is that we hate children and we hate families. We espouse words of virtue that are mere platitudes to conceal beliefs that people don’t deserve benefits like free lunch — especially the poor among us — because of the belief that one’s socioeconomic status reveals a flaw in their humanity.

Actually, failing to feed children universally reveals a flaw in our collective humanity.

READ MORE ARTICLES BY RANN MILLER

Rann Miller is an educator and freelance writer based in New Jersey. His Urban Education Mixtape blog supports urban educators and parents of children attending urban schools. He is the author of “Resistance Stories from Black History for Kids” (Bloom Books for Young Readers) released on March 7: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target. Follow him on Twitter @RealRannMiller.