NC lawmakers call for extension of school meal benefits

State Senate Democrats are calling on state Republican leaders to use state funds to extend free breakfast and lunch to public school students in the upcoming state budget. The estimated cost to the state would be around $93.4 million.

Kindergarten through 12th-grade students have been receiving free school meals since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. It’s been funded by a temporary expansion of the federal program that offsets school meal costs for low-income students. But that expansion is scheduled to end June 30.

But bipartisan measure in Congress to extend the expansion passed the U.S. House but is stalled in the U.S. Senate.

At a news conference Wednesday, state Democrats noted that North Carolina has a historic budget surplus of over $6 billion. They touted pending bills seeking to dip into that surplus to pay for breakfasts for students—a proposed cost of $14.7 million to the state—and for school lunches, a cost of $78.7 million. Democratic lawmakers want those items added into the state budget that lawmakers are currently finalizing.

“This is a basic common sense policy, one that was initiated by the Trump administration at the beginning of the pandemic,” said Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, D-Mecklenburg. “If Congress isn’t acting, often sadly where they fail to act many times, the people of North Carolina—working families, our kids, teachers, educators—we’re relying on our state leaders to act.”

Republican Sen. Phil Berger, the Senate leader in the state's GOP-controlled legislature, said it's likely too late to add those items to the state budget. "I would say that the Democrats control the federal levers at this time," Berger said. "They ought to be talking to the folks in Washington if that's what they want."

The effort comes as inflation and other added costs are forcing officials to raise the prices of school meals.

At present, school nutrition programs are funded exclusively through receipts and federal support. The state provides no funding for school meals or nutrition personnel.

North Carolina Association of Educators president Tamika Walker Kelly spoke in favor of expanded aid for school meals. She said that 52% of North Carolina's K-12 students are already eligible for free or reduced school meals.

“Those who are not eligible, their families are facing rising food costs at the grocery store and in their very own school cafeterias,” Walker Kelly said. “It is not uncommon for a teacher to share stories about how they keep snacks in their classroom for students who need extra food, how they rely on donations from community organizations to sponsor Backpack Buddy programs, or how they spend their own money to buy grocery staples for their students’ families.”