Partner Bill
End Lunch Shaming Bill (H.3319)
This bill would provide equity in school lunches and protect students from punitive measures if they have accrued meal debt.
WREN is committed to transforming schools into places where every woman, girl, and gender expansive student feels safe, valued, and included. This bill would put students and their education first; studies have shown that when students are fed they learn better.
Currently, some students receiving free and reduced lunch are getting different meals than other students.
Some schools have the following punitive measures for students with school meal debt:
- Cannot walk at graduation
- No recess
- Hand stamping
- No extracurricular activities
- Throwing food away
Under this bill, students that are eligible for free and reduced lunch must be offered the same meal as other students and these meals must be offered regardless of if the student owes money for previous meals. Districts cannot penalize students for failing to pay for school lunches and the State Department of Education will develop and provide a model policy and template for school meal debt collection to each school district.