Senate Bill 283 (SB 283, Chapter 586, 2024 Acts of Assembly) “Free school meals; work group to study offering to students statewide," required:

The Superintendent of Public Instruction, in coordination with the Secretary of Education, shall convene a stakeholder work group to (i) study the estimated impact of offering free school meals to students statewide, (ii) identify options to reduce or eliminate student and school meal debt, and (iii) make recommendations regarding options to leverage other programs funded at the state and federal levels for student school meals. The work group shall be chaired by the Superintendent of Public Instruction and shall include relevant stakeholders, including representatives of local school divisions and individuals with expertise in providing innovative solutions at the state and local levels to provide free school meals to students. The work group shall report its findings and recommendations to the Joint Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education Funding by November 1, 2024. (See Appendix A).

The report will document the significant impact of free meals for high-need students who have food insecurities or identified as economically disadvantaged. This report will cover the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP). In addition, the Work Group studied the potential state impact of free school meals to all students without cost to the family (commonly referred to as Universal School Meals (USM)). This report summarizes data, research, findings, and recommendations of the School Meals Stakeholder Work Group.

While the Code of Virginia § 22.1-79.7:1 requires all public schools to participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP), universal school meals or Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) would expand access for any public school child to receive school breakfast and lunch regardless of financial eligibility or household income and would change the intent of the NSLP and SBP to serve students whose families meet current household income requirements. (See Appendix B). Families of non-CEP schools are required to complete eligibility paperwork in order to qualify for free or reduced cost meals. Based on data reported by Virginia’s local school divisions on October 31, 2023, 709,796 students (56.42%) were deemed free meal eligible. In addition, 21,048 students (1.67%) were deemed eligible for meals at a reduced cost. This data showed that of the 1,257,975 students in Virginia, 730,844 (58.10%) were deemed eligible for either free or reduced meals while 527,131 students had families above the federal income threshold able to afford breakfast and school lunches.

There has been an effort across the Commonwealth to increase school division participation in CEP. During the 2023-2024 school year, 90 of the 131 school divisions in Virginia, participated fully in CEP. Every school in these divisions operated as a CEP school, allowing all students to have access to “free meals regardless of the household income." There were 28 school divisions that had select schools within their school division that participated as a CEP school and 13 school divisions that operated without any school operating with CEP provisions. Local school divisions should make decisions that are appropriate to support their community.

Evidence shows participation in CEP and the use of free and reduced meal price options has a positive impact on economically disadvantaged students by addressing childhood hunger, promoting student health, enhancing child development and school readiness, and advancing academic performance.

The SB 283 School Meals Stakeholder Work Group had 29 members I (See Appendix C) representing a wide range of roles including division superintendents, school food authority nutrition programs staff, local school business and finance professionals, non-profit organizations, including but not limited to Share Our Strength, the Virginia Parent Teacher Association (PTA), the Virginia School Boards Association, the Virginia Association of School Business Officials, as well as the Virginia Department of Education and the Virginia Department of Planning and Budget.

The School Meals Stakeholder Work Group was divided into four subcommittees:

1. Administration,
2. Finance,
3. Policy, and
4. Student and Community Impact.

Committee members were assigned subcommittees based on their expertise and role. The School Meals Stakeholder Work Group held five working sessions as a whole group with a focus on subcommittee reports for the three elements outlined in the legislation. Its four subcommittees met between work sessions from July to September 2024.

Virginia, through the state budget, currently provides the following funding to support and expand participation of eligible schools in the NSLP and SBP:

• $1.0 million allocated annually to increase the number of school breakfast meals served through alternative breakfast service models, such as second chance breakfast and breakfast in the classroom (commonly referred to as Breakfast After the Bell funding),

• $11.2 million (FY 2025) and $12.4 million (FY 2026) for incentivizing breakfast meals served per student enrolled above the base year standard (2004),

• $4.1 million per year for eliminating the student cost of reduced-price school breakfast and lunch meals, and

• $5.8 million in school lunch state matching funds that are required for Virginia to be eligible to receive federal per meal reimbursement.

The alternative breakfast service model funding and the state matching funds were currently fully utilized during the 2023-2024. Continued efforts can be made to incentivize breakfast meals and eliminate the student cost of reduced-price school breakfast and lunch meals. The current total state investment for Fiscal Year 2025 in support for NSLP and SBP is $22.17 million dollars. The 2024 Special Session I of the General Assembly increased the reimbursement rate from $0.22 to $0.28. This represents an increase of $2.4 million for Fiscal Year 2025 and a planned increase of $2.7 million in Fiscal Year 2026. These various state funding incentives for school nutrition programs have led to significant increases in school breakfast participation over more than 10 years, including increased access to and participation in both breakfast and lunch by students in all eligibility categories.

Beginning in FY 2023, the state began providing school divisions with funding to cover the reduced-price meal costs in support of low-income working households whose income is too high to qualify for free meals but not enough to cover the daily costs of school meals. This change provided additional state funding to support meal costs to local school divisions. The SB 283 Work Group subcommittees identified several strategies that could maximize these existing programs and current free and reduced-price meal programs in Virginia:

• Maintain current state funding allocations for targeted program efforts, without pulling from other student-based programs or creating unfunded mandates in the event of a need for the state to redirect funding during an economic downturn, to enhance existing school meal initiatives already in place (i.e. Breakfast After the Bell, elimination of reducedprice meals, etc.);

• Develop a process that maximizes school eligibility for current funding sources such as ensuring all schools participate in CEP maximize federal reimbursement as the first source of funding for school nutrition programs;

• Implement a process for non-CEP eligible schools to ensure free and reduced-price meal applications are submitted and acted upon to maximize federal reimbursement as the first source of funding for school nutrition programs;

• Modernize resources and technical training by VDOE to help school divisions increase participation rates of economically disadvantaged students utilizing school meals;

• Expand private-public partnerships with existing nonprofit organizations to provide greater access to student meals, without the need for funding from state or local sources; and

• Consider an alternative metric for a poverty proxy, such as Identified Student Percentage (ISP). ISP is the current metric used to evaluate CEP eligibility. The need for a consistent metric can enhance the allocation of funding across many state programs, including school meals.

The annual state cost to provide universal breakfast and lunch school meals in all Virginia public schools to all students regardless of family socioeconomic status or household income is significant, at an estimated $201.5 million per year (see Appendix D). The continued expansion of CEP does not have a negative impact on state At-Risk funding due to the modification made in FY 2024 to use ISP as the metric for this state program.

Given this cost, concerns regarding the sustainability of any future program of this nature in the Commonwealth as well as the impact on local school divisions should future state funding be reduced or eliminated must be considered. Once funding is provided, any removal of that state funding would result in expected services to families, thus resulting in an unfunded mandate and burden on local school divisions.