Support Public Act 103-0532: Healthy School Meals for All!

Ensure all Illinois schools are hunger-free and supporting our kids to grow, learn, and thrive

School Meals Matter for Students and Families!

Giving all children access to free, healthy school meals improves their health,3,5,6 well-being,5 and academic performance,3 and reduces stigma too often associated with qualifying for free or reduced-price meals.3
Black and Latine/x children are twice as likely to experience food insecurity as white children.7 Making free school meals available to all children can reduce disparities in health and education outcomes between groups, and advance racial equity.7
Minnesota, Colorado, Michigan, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Mexico, California, and Maine have passed and funded permanent universal school meal policies, and most states are working on passing similar legislation.17

Background: School Meals in Illinois

Illinois Students Depend on School Meals | Before the COVID-19 pandemic, an average of 1,016,410 Illinois students received lunches through the National School Lunch Program, and 440,302 received breakfasts through the School Breakfast Program.8 Families’ need for healthy food assistance has only increased since then.15
School Meals are Healthy | School meals must meet federal nutrition standards, which are in line with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendations. They contain nutritious foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and low-fat or nonfat milk.11 Many students rely on school meals for their daily food intake, and research shows that students who eat school meals eat more healthy foods than students who don’t eat school meals!16
More Students Need Access to Affordable School Meals | Illinois has a child food insecurity rate of 11.3%, and 21% of the 323,740 food insecure children in Illinois in 2020 were not eligible for free or reduced-price school meal programs2 due to outdated income eligibility guidelines.3
Free COVID-19 Related School Meals Ended Last Year | Federal school meal waivers that kept K-12 students fed during the COVID-19 pandemic expired in June 2022,1 putting thousands of Illinois children at risk of not having enough food to live a healthy and active life.2

The USDA supports access to healthy school meals for all students:

School Meals Matter for Schools!

Free healthy school meals for all relieves schools of the administrative burden and school meal debt associated with operating eligibility-based federal meal programs.3 The average annual school meal debt in Illinois is $180.60 per child, equating to $81.8 million in total Illinois meal debt.18
Illinois Schools Need More Funding to Feed Students
Illinois Free Lunch and Breakfast Program funding has been cut from $26.3 million in FY 2012 down to $9 million since FY 2015,9,10 and schools are only receiving ~$0.02 per free meal served, far less than the $0.15 currently required in Illinois statute.12 $9 million is the minimum maintenance of effort level required of Illinois to receive federal reimbursement. Illinois must do more to feed our kids!
The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) is a federal program that enables schools and school districts with a high proportion of students from low-income families to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students.12 1823 schools in Illinois currently use CEP.13 Many of Illinois’ schools are eligible for CEP but do not participate,4 potentially due to inadequate federal reimbursement to eligible schools with lower percentages of identified students.14

Once funded, Public Act 103-0532 will:

by:

Supporting any Illinois school to provide a free breakfast and lunch to all students who need and want one

Supporting Illinois schools to adopt federal programs that provide the highest federal school meal reimbursement rates, such as the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)

Providing State funding to schools to make up the difference in costs not covered by federal reimbursements

Supporting the Illinois State Board of Education, schools, and districts across the state to offer high-quality, nourishing, and local foods in school meals

Organizations that support HB 2471 include (list in formation):