As California students head back to school, they won’t need to pack a lunch. The new state budget for education allocates funds for universal meal plans for the next three years.
When the pandemic hit, the federal government — through the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) — made meals available to all students for free, including those who would not normally qualify.
“The USDA has decided for this upcoming school year, because of the pandemic and really trying to heal from this, free meals are on the table,” said Erin Primer from San Luis Coastal Unified School District.
Primer is the district’s director of Food and Nutrition Services.
“The governor has included funding for the two years beyond this school year to launch universal free meals in California. So, for the next three years, California children do not have to worry about paying for their meals at school,” Primer said.
She said the universal meal program will provide breakfast and lunch, and calls it a game changer for K-12 schools.
“By offering universal free meals or free meals for all, we’ve really destigmatized school lunch so it’s no longer about who can afford or not to be on the program, it really is about serving good food,” Primer said.
California has around six million public school students. The budget for meals this school year is $54 million to supplement the federal program then increases to $650 million from the Proposition 98 General Fund annually.
State Senator Monique Limón represents the 19th district from Santa Maria to Camarillo. She said several policy attempts have been made to expand the lunch program in the past few years, but the number one obstacle was funding.
“What we ended up passing was a budget bill, a bill that allocated the funding, and that was AB-130,” Limón said.
Limón said the universal meal program is especially meaningful for the Central Coast.
“It allows for every student to have a healthy meal at school and, therefore, be better prepared and able to learn, and the other piece I think is really important,” Limón said, “is that both Santa Barbara and Ventura counties are in the top 13 counties that produce agriculture for the state of California, so this is a way to also look at our local economy and make sure that our students are benefitting from some of the food in schools.”
For more information about what is included in the California budget, go to CA.gov
