Since the pandemic ended and emergency funding for free school lunch for all public school students in the state of Maryland ended, students have been back to paying for school lunch unless they qualify for a for a free or reduced lunch waiver.
New Mexico, starting this school year, made school lunch free for all students. Similar to Maryland, they had used federal emergency funding to provide free lunches during the pandemic and briefly following times, and they decided to continue to fund it after this funding expired.
Maryland should be the next state to provide school lunch for free. With a population about triple that of New Mexico’s, it may take a lot of planning and aforethought. However, with nearly four times the GDP it should be more than doable.
A recent study highlights just how important it is to tackle food insecurity. A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that was recently featured in the APA magazine, found that, “Children living in food-insecure households had a 55% higher frequency of physician visits for mental health reasons than those with enough food at home.”
This exemplifies some of the greater impacts that a lack of access to food that is free can really have upon children beyond the obvious physical impacts. While some may qualify for free or reduced lunch waivers, these should not be limited to only some students, and providing free lunch to all students would help make it less obvious and help maintain privacy in terms of socioeconomic status.
Overall, public schools are supposed to be a free institution, on top of having to pay for things such as school supplies personally, families should not have to pay for food at a place where their children are required to go. If you are going to require someone to be somewhere for seven hours a day, not making them purchase provide their own lunch should be a natural decision. In jury duty, you’re require to be there for a substantial amount of time, and they provide food for you. The same logic surely should apply to children in public schools. Studies document the benefits, and Maryland has more than the capability to make it happen.
