MA Senate Passes Cindy Creem's Bill To Promote Student Nutrition

NEWTON, MA — The Massachusetts Senate passed a bill Thursday that ensures children have access to healthy meals at school.

An Act to Promote Student Nutrition, sponsored by Sen. Cindy Creem, D-Newton, requires high-poverty districts to offer universal free breakfast and lunch and includes measures to prevent students from being denied food due to unpaid school meal debt.

“I’m thrilled that we took action," said Creem in a Tweet Thursday. "Children should not be going hungry, and their schools should not penalize them for their family’s poverty.”

Under the bill, districts where 60% or more of the students receive free or discounted lunches would be required to participate in the Community Eligibility Program (CEP), which provides free meals to all students by using a formula based on the percentage of students eligible for free meals to reimburse districts for the cost in four-year periods.

Schools would also be asked to take steps to maximize state aid and minimize costs for families by assessing student meal debt and, after 30 days, decide whether to certify them for free school meal status.

According to the bill, schools would also be prohibited from publicly identifying students who have not paid their meal debt by denying them a meal, serving them an alternative meal, disposing of an already served meal, prohibiting them from participating in extracurricular activities, field trips, or events, or preventing them from receiving grades, transcripts, and report cards or graduating.

In addition, districts would not be allowed to require a parent or guardian to pay excess fees for meals previously served to a student or inform the Department of Children & Families of unpaid meal debt.

There would be no cost to the state for implementing the law and districts can waive the provision if they are able to justify that implementation will incur financial hardship to the district, says the bill.