According to a Republican polling firm, two-thirds of Ohioans support a universal free school breakfast and lunch program for all children attending public schools.
“This is an extremely rare occurrence at a time when voters are truly reluctant to support further spending, either at the state or federal level,” he added. Alexi Donovan, vice president of Tarrance Group Polling, he said Monday during Ohio Legislative Children’s Caucus monthly meeting.
This month’s meeting heard testimonies about the importance of universal school meals and Tarrance Group survey in May, it surveyed 600 Ohio voters on the topic.
“It is clear from research and data obtained over the years that universal school meals help students develop physically, mentally, socially and educationally,” she said. John Stanford, director With Children’s Defense Fund–Ohio.
In Ohio, 1 in 6 children, or approximately 413,000 children, live in a household experiencing hunger. Yet, according to the study, more than 1 in 3 children living in food-insecure households are ineligible for school meals. Report for 2023 from the Children’s Defense Fund of Ohio.
“We believe that in a country as rich as we are, we shouldn’t have hungry children,” said Lisa Quigley, director of Solving hunger.
Exposing students to a variety of fruits and vegetables during school meals helps them taste “food that is much more nutritious than what many of them bring to school,” she said.
“We have seen that in schools that provide universal school meals, the food is getting better,” Quigley said.
National security
Child hunger is a national security issue, said Cynthia Rees, Ohio director of the Council for a Strong America.
The The US Department of Defense conducted a study in 2020 which shows that 77% of teenage people aged 17 to 24 are ineligible for military service without exemption. The most common disqualification indicator was overweight (11%), above drug and alcohol abuse (8%) and health/physical condition (7%).
“It is important to recognize that overweight and obesity can often be a manifestation of undernutrition, food insecurity or a lack of access to healthy and affordable foods, often resulting in the consumption of cheaper and more accessible foods that often lack nutritional value,” Rees said.
Rees said the food insecurity rate for children in Ohio is 15% and in some counties as high as 24%.
“Increasing children’s access to fresh and nutritious food today, including through free school meals for all students, can help America recover from today’s challenges and strengthen our national security in the future,” she said. “The military has a long-standing interest in the health and nutrition of our nation’s youth.”
Universal school meals would eliminate the stigma of categorizing students who receive free or reduced-price meals and those who do not, Rees said.
“Instead, all students can just eat a meal together,” she said. “When we provide access to school meals for everyone, we remove that stigma.”
Ohio legislation
Last year’s budget bill made it possible for any student who qualified for free or reduced school breakfast or lunch to receive those meals for free during the 2023-24 school year.
Currently in Ohio, children qualify for free or reduced-price school meals if their household income does not exceed 185% of the federal poverty line, which is $57,720 for a family of four, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
State Reps. Darnell Brewer, R-Cleveland, and Ismail Mohamed, R-Columbus, introduced a bill earlier this year that would require public schools to provide a meal to any student who requests one.
House Bill 408 It would also prohibit the district from throwing away a meal after it has been served “due to a student’s inability to pay for the meal or due to debt for previously delivered meals.” So far, he has only had sponsor testimony before the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education.
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