COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – This school year, many more meals will be provided at no cost to students in South Carolina public schools.
A temporary law in the current state budget prohibits schools that serve breakfast or lunch from charging families a reduced-price payment.
So if a child is eligible, these meals will now be free.
“If you are struggling to feed your family, and you’re a child who doesn’t know where your next meal is coming from, being able to know that you can go to school, receive a meal, is going to be a real relief,” Meg Stanley, executive director of the statewide nonprofit Wholespire, said.
According to Wholespire, which works to provide access to nutritious food and physical activity across South Carolina, more than 1.1 million reduced-cost meals were served in the state’s public schools last year.
These meals are typically priced at 30 cents per breakfast and 40 cents per lunch, which will now become free for the child.
Stanley said those reduced-cost meals added up last year to more than $427,000 in payments for families across South Carolina.
“We have 61% of the children in our school districts reporting being in the poverty level and children reporting being hungry or food insecure and not knowing where their next meal is going to come from,” she said.
This rule is in addition to one that has been in effect since last year, requiring schools and districts that are eligible for a federal program that provides free meals to all students in the entire school or district to participate if they qualify.
“As someone who’s been food insecure, it was important to me to fight to feed our kids in South Carolina,” Rep. Heather Bauer, D – Richland, said. “You can’t learn if you’re hungry.”
Bauer was one of the lawmakers who pushed for the inclusion of this new provision in the budget.
She said there is still more work to be done when it comes to school meals.
“I would like to see free lunches for every kid in South Carolina, and I’d also like to see us take part in the summer feeding program. One hungry kid is too many in South Carolina,” Bauer said.
In recent years, South Carolina has taken other steps related to school meals, including enacting a law that prohibits schools from using debt collectors to go after families with meal debt, as well as enforcing a ban on punishing students who incur these debts.
Wholespire encourages families to find out if their school or district is participating in the federal program under which every student automatically eats free.
If they’re not, then they have to fill out paperwork to receive free meals at school if they are eligible, based on their income.
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