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The Conversation
The Conversation
Lifestyle
Marlene B. Schwartz, Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Connecticut

Free school meals are on the rise in the US − but that could change depending on who wins the 2024 presidential election

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz gets hugs from students after signing into law a measure that guarantees free school meals at all of the state's public and charter schools. Elizabeth Flores/Star Tribune via Getty Images

Should all U.S. public school students be able to eat breakfast and lunch at no cost, regardless of their family’s income? The federal government temporarily made that possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, some states have taken it upon themselves to make it happen on a permanent basis. The Conversation U.S. asked Marlene B. Schwartz and Juliana Cohen, two scholars of school nutrition, to explain why this issue has become more prominent and what they expect the next presidential administration to do about it.

A woman in a cafeteria hands a heaping plate of food to the next person in line.
Students are served a lunch made with local farm produce at Copiague High School on New York’s Long Island on Oct. 20, 2022. Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM via Getty Images
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