March 18—Proposed legislation moving through the Minnesota state legislature would require that students who qualify for reduced-price lunches be provided with lunch at school regardless of the status of their lunch account.
The proposed legislation, moving through both House and Senate committees, prohibits school districts from denying “... lunch to a child eligible for a reduced-price school lunch who lacks sufficient funds to pay for lunch or has unpaid school lunch debts.”
If passed, the legislation would add approximately 61,500 students statewide to the free lunch program. It comes at a cost of about $4 million to the state.