VIEWPOINT | Feeding kids takes heart — and money

By Megan EisenVos, Dakota Rural Action

What does it take to offer a balanced meal of protein, fruit, vegetable, whole grain and milk to a child during a school day? Whether a school has 100 students or over 1,000, providing lunch is a feat of technical planning, coordination and skill. School lunch directors and nutrition staff work tirelessly to ensure that our students are offered a meal every day within tight timeframes and an even tighter budget. This tight budget and the rising debt schools face because of mounting unpaid lunch bills could cause some students to go hungry during school.

VIEWPOINT | Who's gonna fill their boots?

How does NSLP reimbursement work?

When schools opt in to the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), Child Nutrition Directors and staff provide nutritionally balanced meals set to extremely stringent guidelines (specific calorie amounts and serving sizes, sodium and sugar limits, vegetable type, whole grain requirements, and fat restrictions). It is one of the most tightly regulated industries, with people on the ground working diligently to feed our kids.

Sioux Falls Public School District Child Nutrition Coordinator Gay Anderson leads a tour of the Central Kitchen, pictured here in a giant walk-in cooler. This kitchen prepares over 10,400 hot meals for Sioux Falls elementary schools, plus over 4,000 breakfasts and 3,000 snacks daily. (Submitted photo)

In return, schools receive federal reimbursement per plate served plus a copay per meal paid by the families. Copayments are decided by income guidelines. Families who make less than 185 percent of the federal poverty guideline (FPL) qualify for free or reduced-price meals (F/R), as the table below shows. For context, in 2023 for a family of four, if family income is less than $55,500 annually, the students would qualify — if the application is completed and submitted to the school.

Where is the debt coming from?

In 2020, of the 50,582 students participating in the NSLP in South Dakota, 36.3 percent qualified for free/reduced price meals. In Sioux Falls, close to 44.5 percent of the district’s 24,000 students are enrolled for meal assistance through the South Dakota Department of Education (Sneve, Dakota Scout, November 27). As part of the pandemic relief programs, all students were awarded universal free meals in school years ‘20-21 and ‘21-22 from the federal government. These funds have since expired, and debt from unpaid lunch tabs is mounting. Families may be used to not submitting their applications for the F/R Program, may not speak English, may be afraid to complete the form if they do not have citizen documentation, or often are just over the income limit. As Sioux Falls School District Child Nutrition Coordinator Gay Anderson stated, “There are also close to 600 kids who applied this year who were denied assistance because their families make too much money.”

Unpaid lunch bills are then taken out of the school’s general fund, which impacts teacher pay and other school resources. Great community generosity has helped cover much of this debt. Different tactics are constantly implemented to help increase F/R Application Submission. Still, functioning this way is not sustainable for our Child Nutrition programs, our schools, or our students and families.

Potential solutions

As more publicity is gathering around actions school districts are taking to prevent mounting debt, the staff might take the brunt of people’s frustration. Channeling frustration into policy that can positively impact the system is a much more productive path. State funding and local policy can help improve this situation, and over 10 states have implemented their own funding allotments to assist in meal costs for schools. Examples around us include Minnesota and North Dakota. In School Year ‘23-24, Minnesota will implement free breakfast and lunch for every student regardless of family income, as was approved by their state legislature in February 2023. North Dakota also just appropriated funds to cover school district costs for free meals for all students from families under 200 percent FPL.

This coming state legislature, South Dakota will have another opportunity to step up to the challenge of keeping our kids fed, as these examples already have done. Rep. Kadyn Wittman (D-15) in collaboration with Rep. Tyler Tordsen (R-14) and Sent. Liz Larson (D-10) Michael Rohl (R-1) already introduced a bill, House Bill 1042, that will provide state general funds to reimburse schools and school districts for breakfast and lunch meal costs for every student qualifying for free or reduced lunch. An estimated $578,916 would cover the cost of these meals. Paired with an additional bill to be introduced by Representative Tordsen, our state would ensure that meals are not denied to any student from a family qualifying for F/R lunch. Tordsen’s bill would also increase F/R income qualification to 200 percent FPL and is very similar to a bill already passed in Iowa. The ticket for both Tordsen’s bill and H.B. 1042 would be $1.7million.

Lunch bill now or consequences later

At face value, $1.7 million might seem steep, but consider the staggering costs that incur if we don’t invest in the nutrition of our state’s children: health care, prison costs, work force, and even military readiness. As the Food Research and Action Center reported in 2017, children living in poverty “has been linked to serious, long-term economic consequences, including higher health care expenditures, lower educational achievement, lost productivity, and lower earnings in adulthood.” Students that are fed perform better across the board, setting them on a strong path to be an educated and qualified workforce.

Furthermore, school lunch is estimated to have reduced national childhood obesity rates by 17 percent or more (FRAC, 2017). In 1945, 40 percent of military recruits were unable to serve due to poor nutrition, which inspired the development of the NSLP (“Retired General Highlights Link Between Food Security and National Security,” Mission: Readiness, 2022). Today, nutrition continues to be a pervasive issue, with about 64 percent of young adults ineligible for service due to being overweight or obese (“77 percent of American Youth Can’t Qualify for Military Service,” Mission: Readiness, 2023). Obesity is not an indicator of enough food, but of a nutrition imbalance. Calories eaten does not equal nutrition intake. Highly processed foods with greater amounts of fat and sodium are often what is the available choice for people in a financial bind. Funding a balanced breakfast and lunch during the school day is an essential step we must take to mitigate distressing consequences from poor nutrition of our children.

Megan EisenVos is Food Systems Organizer for Dakota Rural Action and the South Dakota Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics’ State Policy Specialist.