[ U.S. Sen. John Fetterman said the aim of the bill is to "stop
humiliating kids and penalizing hunger."]
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SENATE DEMS WANT TO CANCEL ALL STUDENT LUNCH DEBT—A ‘TERM SO
ABSURD THAT IT SHOULDN’T EVEN EXIST’  
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Jessica Corbett
September 25, 2023
Common Dreams
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_ U.S. Sen. John Fetterman said the aim of the bill is to "stop
humiliating kids and penalizing hunger." _

Elementary school children line up in a cafeteria during lunchtime
Hagerstown, Maryland on September 22, 2013. (Photo: Edwin Remsburg/VW
Pics via Getty Images),

 

As children across the United States have started a new academic year
over the past month, many families have had to contend with federal
lawmakers' refusal to guarantee universal free meals and the resulting
"lunch shaming"—which three U.S. Senate Democrats hope to partially
combat with new legislation to cancel student lunch debt nationwide.

"'School lunch debt' is a term so absurd that it shouldn't even
exist," Sen. John Fetterman
[[link removed]] (D-Pa.) declared in
a statement Monday. "That's why I'm proud to introduce this bill to
cancel the nation's student meal debt and stop humiliating kids and
penalizing hunger."

"It's time to come together and stop playing political games with
Americans' access to food," he added. "September is Hunger Action
Month and I'm proud to be introducing this bill to help working
families now, while we work to move our other priorities to combat
food insecurity in our nation."

Fetterman—who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition,
and Forestry's Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops,
Organics, and Research—is leading the fight for the School Lunch
Debt Cancellation Act with Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Peter
Welch (D-Vt.).

"No child in Rhode Island—or anywhere in America—should be
penalized for not being able to afford school lunch. It's that
simple," asserted Whitehouse. "Our legislation will eliminate lunch
debt in schools, supporting every child's access to a healthy meal and
positioning them for long-term success."

Welch agreed, saying: "Our students shouldn't have to worry about how
they're paying for lunch—full stop. I'm proud to partner with my
colleagues Sen. Fetterman and Whitehouse on this commonsense bill, and
urge my colleagues to stand with us."

Congress initially responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by enabling
public schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to all 50 million
children nationwide, but Republicans blocked
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continuation that policy last year. Instead, lawmakers passed the Keep
Kids Fed Act, a bipartisan compromise that increased federal
reimbursement rates for programs serving low-income students. However,
as _Common Dreams_reported
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only around a quarter of districts that responded to a survey from the
School Nutrition Association said those levels are sufficient, and
99.2% had concerns about raised rates expiring.

Further burdening American families trying to feed children amid food
companies' price gouging
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congressional Republicans and right-wing Sen. Joe Manchin
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the pandemic-era expansion of the child tax credit—a move that
contributed to the U.S. child poverty rate more than doubling in 2022
compared with the previous year, according to
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released this month.

"Prior to the pandemic, some schools had resorted to tactics that
embarrassed kids
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such as stamping their hands to remind parents of unpaid bills and
substituting cold cheese sandwiches for hot meals," _Civil
Eats_reported
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"Sometimes meals were thrown out in front of the children. And while
experts say that fewer districts have resumed these practices—often
dubbed 'lunch shaming'—they haven't gone away entirely either."

Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs
at the Research and Action Center (FRAC), told the outlet, "Schools,
families, and states really did not want to go back to having the
complicated school nutrition operations where some kids have access to
free meals and other kids do not, and they have to struggle with
unpaid debt."

The families of almost half a million food insecure children in
Pennsylvania collectively owe nearly $80 million in public school
lunch debt, according to Fetterman's office. Nationally, more than 30
million kids can't afford their school meals and the total debt is
$262 million annually.

California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota
[[link removed]],
New Mexico, and Vermont have all guaranteed
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free school meals, and Michigan
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programs in place for the 2023-24 school year. While lawmakers in
other states are working to pass similar bills, advocates have called
for
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legislation to ensure all schoolchildren are fed.

In addition to the new debt cancellation bill, Fetterman is among the
co-sponsors of the Universal School Meals Program Act
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reintroduced in May by Sen. Bernie Sanders
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Rep. Ilhan Omar
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"It is downright cruel that we are letting our children in America go
hungry," Fetterman said
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the time. "No child in America should be worried about if they are
going to be able to get breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I am proud and
honored to co-sponsor this bill that will finally make sure that our
children are fed."

_Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common
Dreams._

_Common Dreams is a reader-supported independent news outlet created
in 1997 as a new media model.  Our nonprofit newsroom covers the most
important news stories of the moment. Common Dreams free online
journalism keeps our millions of readers well-informed, inspired, and
engaged._

_We are optimists. We believe real change is possible. But only if
enough well-informed, well-intentioned—and just plain fed up and
fired-up—people demand it. We believe that together we can attain
our common dreams._

* hunger
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* school lunch program
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