How reducing free school lunch access would impact Arizona
GLENDALE, AZ (AZFamily) —Access to free school lunches for low-income students could be cut as Congress looks for ways to save money to fund President Donald Trump’s agenda.
More than half of the students in Arizona public schools qualify for free school lunches. Any changes to the structure of the federal school lunch program, known as the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), could have significant impacts on hundreds of thousands of children in the state.
Right now, if 25% of students at an Arizona school live at or below the poverty level, every student at the school gets access to free lunch, paid by the federal government. Some Republican lawmakers want to change that and are proposing that a school will need 60% of its students at the poverty level to qualify.
Shannon Gleave, the nutrition director for the Glendale Elementary School District. This week she is in Washington, D.C., urging members to keep the program as is. “Some of these kids, these are the only two great meals they get a day. We offer fresh fruit and vegetables, and whole grains,” Gleave said. “Feeding kids should be a bipartisan topic. We want to make sure that our future is being well nourished.”
Some parents are against the potential cut to CEP. “There should be certain things that are cut but when we start to cut things that affect the most vulnerable in our community, especially kids, we need to think twice about it,” said Joshua Molina, a father.
These potential cuts are part of Congress’ current budget reconciliation proposal.
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