RI Senate Passes Bills Making Meals Free For Public School Children

RHODE ISLAND — The Senate passed two bills Tuesday that would require universal healthy free school meals at Rhode Island's public schools, officials said in a news release.

One of the bills, sponsored by Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Sandra Cano, would require free meals to be provided for all elementary and secondary students attending public schools, to the extent state and federal funds are available, officials said. The other bill, sponsored by Senator Jonathon Acosta, would require free breakfast and lunch to be provided for all students.

These bills amended the General Laws by adding "free breakfast" into the statute that applies to free school lunches — and removing language that states only students and families who meet certain financial requirements be offered free meals, according to officials.

Senator Acosta wrote in the news release that “While our free and reduced meal programs in public schools help many children, the current status quo still leaves too many students hungry during the school day for reasons such as social stigma, family finances or varying other factors."

Chairwoman Cano added that “The science and data are clear – our children perform better in school when universal healthy free meals are offered."

"Physical, social, and mental health stressors for our students are consistently lessened when our children are fed properly through universal healthy free meals," Cano continued. "The current free or reduced meal model also unfortunately causes many children to fall through the cracks, possibly having to forgo eating because their families might make a fraction more than the program eligibility requires."

The legislation is supported by a coalition of more than 30 local organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics – RI Chapter, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American College of Cardiology – RI Chapter, and the American Heart Association.

Both bills are now headed to the House of Representatives for consideration.