“We know from decades of research that students do much better in school when they have access to nutritious meals,” said the bill’s author, Senator Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. “Free School Meals for All is based on a simple yet powerful premise: Our public schools are free for any child to attend, so every student should also have access to free and healthy meals.” For the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, the federal government funded free meals for all students by waiving eligibility requirements, but those waivers end at the close of the current school year. This new program, funded by the state, will be implemented starting in the 2022-23 school year, so students will not see a disruption in the free meals services. Simply put, parents will not be billed, and no student will be denied. What does that mean for classified employees? They will no longer have to track down who is eligible for free meals, who must pay a reduced or full amount, or follow up with any students or families for meal payments.

“It never made sense to me that families and schools had to deal with bureaucratic red tape – completing and processing long, complicated forms, the hassle of collecting school meal payments – just so that kids could receive a free or reduced-priced meal,” Skinner said. “That cumbersome system created an unnecessary stigma for students and families and kept kids from the meals they needed and food service workers from the jobs they needed. Free School Meals for All ends all that.” Skinner hopes the bill will also result in more jobs. After all, the bill “honors the work of the lunchroom workers and lifts up their contributions,” she said. SB 364 also provides other levels of support. In addition to the meals provided to students, the bill includes $120 million for kitchen facilities upgrades and $30 million for professional development for food service staff.

“During the pandemic, we saw a big growth in child hunger, but we also saw what a difference it made when the federal government began funding free school meals for all kids...”

- Senator Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley

For the facilities grant, districts may receive a $25,000 base grant. After base allocations are made, remaining funds will be provided to local education agencies (LEAs) where at least 50% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The professional development funds will be allocated to districts based on the number of lunches served in October 2020 by the LEA. Districts may receive a $2,000 base grant. “I hope classified workers throughout the state are buoyed by this and that we use it to build momentum for other opportunities that center this important workforce and the impacts their labor has on children, families, schools, learning and our state,” Skinner said. Our members’ work is so important to recognize and support, especially over the past two years. “During the pandemic, we saw a big growth in child hunger, but we also saw what a difference it made when the federal government began funding free school meals for all kids,” Skinner said. “School food service workers moved mountains to ensure that students received those meals even when students weren’t attending an in-person school. It just made sense that we should expand on that success.”