MADISON, Wis. — As the school year nears an end, local community groups in Madison have teamed up to raise money to pay off lunch debts, as well as continue to push the school district to fund free meals for all students.
“Imagine trying to focus on a math lesson while worrying about where you will sleep that night or where your next meal will come from,” Micheal Edwards, Youth Program Manager at Urban Triage, said during a press conference held Tuesday. “These students often experience chronic stress, which can lead to both physical and mental health issues that’s going on in our community now.”
The campaign comes with two goals: raise $235,000 to pay off the current school meal debt that families in the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) owe and get the district to fully fund free school lunches for all students by increasing the the Food and Nutrition Budget by $2 million in the 2024-2025 budget and by applying for more federal funding.
Organizers said lunch debts impact every student and family in the district.
“This is because as certain families struggle to pay off their debt, the food and nutrition department is periodically forced to settle ‘uncollectable debt’ directly from their own budget,” David O’Keeffe, a member of the Madison Area Democratic Socialists of America, explained.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, waivers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ensured all students could get free meals. However, those funds expired in June 2022.
With that being the case, organizers said one way parents can help is by simply participating in their school’s program.
“In order to make the program better, they need to participate, and I know that’s a super weird thing to ask folks to do, but the more people that participate in the meal program, the more federal funding that we get back and the better that we can make the meal program,” Natasha Sullivan, Education Justice Center Project Lead at Madison Teachers Incorporated, said.
Tuesday's campaign announcement is hardly the first push for a universal school lunch program in Wisconsin.
During the 2021-2022 session, lawmakers in the State Assembly introduced a bill to reimburse costs for schools that provide free meals, along with a plan to expand state funding for free breakfast and lunch for all K-12 students, but the proposal wasn’t passed.
Governor Tony Evers also included a ‘Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids’ plan as part of the 2023-2025 state budget, which also would have provided free school meals and boosted reimbursements for breakfast. However, the incentives were removed from the budget by the Joint Finance Committee in May 2023.
If you are interested in donating to the campaign, you can learn more here.
MMSD declined to comment on this story.