https://19thnews.org/2023/07/minnesota-students-free-school-lunches/
"Heather Gustafson knows what it’s like to struggle to keep money in her
children’s meal accounts at school. Now a Minnesota state senator, Gustafson
spent several years as a single mother raising four kids on a modest teacher’s
salary.
Although she suspects her income would’ve qualified her children to receive
free or reduced-price school lunch, she never completed the paperwork to
determine their eligibility.
“One of the reasons I didn’t fill out the form was because I assumed that it …
was some cumbersome thing that I had to prove with a bunch of forms,” she said.
“There was also this shame of, like, ‘Well, maybe, if I just get a second job,
then it won’t be so embarrassing.’”
Thanks to universal school meals legislation that Gustafson and Rep. Sydney
Jordan sponsored in the state legislature, Minnesota parents will no longer
have to worry about keeping their kids fed at school. The law provides free
lunch and breakfast to the state’s K-12 students regardless of household
income. Signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz in the spring, the legislation took
effect July 1 and will cost Minnesota about $400 million in the program’s first
two years.
Minnesota’s universal free meal legislation is part of a burgeoning national
movement to provide all students with no-cost breakfast and lunch. Through the
end of the 2021-22 school year, the federal government provided free meals as
part of its pandemic response, no matter a family’s ability to pay. That effort
gave Minnesota and five other states — California, Maine, Colorado, New Mexico
and Vermont — the momentum to pass free school meal legislation.
The lawmakers and advocates who fought to implement Minnesota’s Free School
Meals Program expect it to improve student health, behavior, attendance and
performance; end the stigma associated with receiving free or reduced-price
lunch; and stop lunch shaming practices in which students without money for
meals are overtly or covertly penalized."
Via
The Fixer July 19, 2023:
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/new-zealand-plastic-produce-bag-ban/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
