All Nebraska students would receive free school lunch under Unicameral proposal

In the 2022-2023 school year, 48.2% of Nebraskans enrolled in public schools were eligible to receive free or reduced lunch.

Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh’s Hunger-Free Schools Act (LB14) would make lunch free for 100% of Nebraska public and private school students.

This is the fourth time Cavanaugh has introduced the bill since she joined the Legislature in 2019.

The legislation would require schools to offer free breakfasts and lunches to students regardless of their federal free or reduced lunch eligibility. The state would reimburse schools to offset the cost of the new requirement.

An amendment would allow schools without the staff or resources to serve breakfast to request a waiver from providing breakfasts.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began offering free meals for all schoolchildren, regardless of financial status. After several extensions, that program ended in June 2022.

Since then, states including California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Vermont have enacted universal free school lunch programs.

At a hearing Tuesday evening, Vivian Nebel, a sixth grader from Omaha, said universal free lunches could reduce food insecurity and social stigma in the lunchroom.

“Parents can't afford the school lunches and from my own experience, they stop kids in the lunch lines and tell them to tell their parents to refill their lunch accounts in front of everybody,” she said.

Nebel said she would be willing to give up assistant teachers, extra playgrounds and Top Golf for the program, but community pools, streetlights, sidewalks and libraries were off the table.

President of the Nebraska State Education Association Tim Royers said the bill could also help address academic and behavioral issues in schools.

“Food insecurity has had a profound impact on the children of our state,” he said. “From an educator’s lens, it seriously jeopardizes their ability to achieve academically, and it also has a contributing factor to some of the behavior concerns that we have been discussing over the past few sessions.”

It is estimated the program would cost the state more than $60 million annually.

Nebraska is facing a $432 million budget shortfall that senators must address by the end of the session.

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