School Lunch Bill

On Thursday, the House voted on a bill to expand the free school lunch program to every student in Minnesota. Unfortunately, this bill is an extremely expensive solution that does not fully solve the problem of students who are going hungry.

Under current law, students are already entitled to the same lunch as other students, even if they have outstanding lunch debt. This bill would still allow them to be turned away if they need extra food in addition to a standard lunch. Instead of targeting relief to those who really need it, this bill gives relief to wealthy families who can already afford to pay for their students' lunches.

Committee Hearings

We have had a full week of committee hearings, including important bills and testimony regarding helping disabled Minnesotans to be able to get transportation from their personal care attendants.

Constituent Visits

This week I met with many constituents at the Capitol, including the gentlemen from Bray-Gentilly Mutual from up in our area (photo at right), who were here with the Minnesota Association of Farm Mutual Insurance Companies.

Also this week, I met with two local students spending the week at the Capitol with the High School Page Program.?Nathan Johnannack from Crookston and Bjorn Messick from Fertile (photo at left) have both been working as pages here this week, and we had a great conversation about what's going on here in St. Paul!

If you have a student who is interested in this program, you can learn more about the High School Page Program here.