Some Statehouse leaders call universal meal program at schools wasteful

Yahoo

15-03-2025

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio lawmakers are deciding how to spend billions of taxpayer dollars for the two-year state operating budget. Among those decisions, is whether free school breakfasts and lunches should be served to all students.
'We've seen time and time again why that makes for better outcomes for kids [by] just making sure that they have those meals at school,' Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said. 'Providing it universally, there's no stigma attached to who gets a meal, who doesn't. It's just all the kids are the same in that classroom.'
'There are real questions folks have when these school lunch proposals are talking about paying for the richest 1%; [they] would still qualify for a free lunch,' Ohio House Finance Chair Representative Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) said. 'I don't think that sits real well with some folks like myself.'
Right now, the state operating budget, as proposed by Governor Mike DeWine, requires schools to participate in a federal school meal program to secure the maximum federal money available, but it does not universally fund these programs. Advocates said the state should do its part and step in.
When Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) was asked if he is supportive of the program, he said 'the answer to that is 'no.''
'Many parents don't want to have their children eating the breakfast that's at school, that's one,' he said. 'Two, many parents can afford to pay for their breakfast.'
Huffman added not only that, but there is 'a ton of waste in this program,' as it is required that all the food be given out.
'If we're going to say buy it all for everybody whether they want it or not, need it or not, are going to use it or not, that's when you end up having a lot of waste,' he said.
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Universal free lunch and breakfast across the state is estimated to cost Ohio $300 million a year. Breakfast alone would be $50 million. And Republican leaders are not too keen on that price tag.
'They're really expensive asks,' Stewart said. 'So, if we cut 10 other things and made deep cuts elsewhere, you can afford to do a lot.'
'We should be able to afford it. These are our children; these are our future. I can't think of a whole lot of things that are more important than making sure out children succeed,' Antonio said.
But high school students, like Corbin Eaton, a junior at Antwerp High School in Northwest Ohio said the argument to fully fund school breakfast and lunch is simple.
'No student should have to think about when or where their next meal should be,' Eaton said.
Eaton said at the end of last school year, he and his siblings stopped qualifying for free meals because his mom went back to work. But then, unexpected barriers arose when his mom was hospitalized.
'In the fall of last year, she started having serious health issues that required three surgeries in less than a week and she was in the hospital for close to a month,' he said.
Eaton even with his mom back to work, money was tight, and her being hospitalized made things even tighter.
'I mean grocery shop here and there but not frequently like we should,' Eaton said.
Eaton said if his family still qualified for free meals, it would have been a weight off his, his younger siblings and his parents' shoulders during the hard time. Instead, Eaton said at times he had to struggle through classes in the morning before he was able to get lunch in the afternoon.
'I still have that trouble,' he said. 'I'm just one to usually just eat lunch at school. That helps me perform academically better in the afternoon.'
Eaton said even though he is graduating in a year, he hopes something gets done, even if it goes into effect once he is out of high school, it will help his younger siblings.
The state budget, where this funding would end up if lawmakers decide to add it, is getting worked on right now. It will likely pass at the end of June.
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