![]() ![]() ![]() Andy Haas, the building administrator at Bellows Falls Union High School, recalls the embarrassing process when students couldn't pay for their meal. Others have concerns that students will lose access to what could be their only healthy meal during the day. "If we end up going back to a paid meal system, what will happen is that our programs will be in huge financial jeopardy because we will be faced with huge unpaid debt," Alexander explained. Pasta and veggies were served for lunch at a school in Vermont. ![]() We think that kids in Alabama and Mississippi should be able to access free breakfast and lunch, just like kids in California and Colorado." "In an ideal world, we would want every child in every school to have access to free breakfast and lunch. "States are stepping in because Congress has not acted," said Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs at the Food Research and Action Center. Now, Vermont and New York hope to be next. California and Maine had already established their own programs. In the past two weeks, Minnesota and New Mexico joined Colorado in creating a permanent free school meals program. More than a dozen states are considering some form of free school meal legislation in their statehouses. Vermont is one of five states that created its own program to keep meals free. For the 2022-2023 school year, that benefit ended which left schools grappling with record keeping and increasing student meal debt. "And we just don't have that conversation anymore."ĭuring the pandemic, every public school could offer free meals as a part of the financial assistance passed by Congress. "It used to be quite often when we were talking about kids who were displaying certain behaviors or who were having academic problems, that whether or not they had enough food was an element of that conversation," Frazer said. Now, every student attending a public school in Vermont can get breakfast and lunch for free due to a pilot program. Parents had to fill out forms to determine if they were eligible and if not, it cost just over $2 a day for lunch. "If kids don't have access to food and if the food system isn't working, the kids are really limited in terms of their ability to learn."īefore the pandemic, about 45% of the students at Robinson qualified for either free or reduced-price meals. "When I first came into becoming a principal I was shocked by how much of my job had to do with food and not education," Frazer said. 10, 2023.Įdorah Frazer has been the principal of Robinson Elementary School in Starksboro, Vt., for eight years.Įach year there is one subject she always has to tackle: how to feed her 107 kids. A student carries her plate which consists of three bean chili, rice, mandarins and cherry tomatoes and baked chips during her lunch break at a local public school, Friday, Feb. ![]()
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