New Mexico senator proposes the federal government double lunch money for schools

New Mexico’s schools and schools across the country could see more federal dollars for meals next year.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., introduced legislation to double the federal reimbursement for public school meals by 45 cents for every lunch served and 28 cents for every breakfast served.

“We in New Mexico are one of the first states to start providing healthy school meals to every student, and we were able to do that in part by leveraging the federal meal reimbursements that come through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program,” said Emily Wildau, senior research and policy analyst for New Mexico Voices for Children.

New Mexico passed a law in March to make school lunch and breakfast free to all students. The state committed $22 million to funding school lunches for the 2023-2024 school year. According to Associated Press reporting, the law could require between $27 million and $40 million in recurring funding from the state’s general fund.

But much of the funding for school districts’ nutrition services still comes from federal reimbursement for meals served to students, and an increase in reimbursement rates could benefit districts across the state, said Sandra Kemp, executive director of Albuquerque Public Schools Food and Nutrition. The move could be especially beneficial in rural districts, which typically spend more on transporting food to school kitchens.

“The funding will help a lot of districts ... to be financially stable. If the food service program can’t be financially solvent, the districts have to kick in the money to make it whole,” Kemp said.

School lunch funding increased during the pandemic, thanks to a temporary federal measure, but that measure expired in June. The federal reimbursement rate is raised annually to account for inflation, but the new legislation would be a one-time permanent raise in the reimbursement rate, far outpacing the small annual raise. This school year the reimbursement rate was raised by 2.7%, Kemp said.

“New Mexico sent a strong message to the rest of our nation when it passed universal school meals: Every child deserves a quality education and a fair shot at success. That means no child goes hungry,” Heinrich, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing USDA nutrition programs, said in a statement. “By permanently increasing the federal school meal reimbursement rate, the Healthy Meals Help Kids Learn Act is an important step toward keeping all of America’s kids fed. When we invest in our children, we invest in our future.”

Heinrich is cosponsoring the bill with Democrats John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Raphael Warnock of Georgia.

New Mexico, Colorado, Minnesota, Vermont, Michigan and Massachusetts all made school breakfast and lunch free for all students starting this academic year. California and Maine made universal free meals permanent in the last school year.

“The thing that’s really interesting is in New Mexico, the bill passed unanimously,” Wildau said. “Nobody voted against it, and so that was really unique.”

Some of the other states where universal free meals have been brought forward have seen strong opposition.

“I think it’s always important to remember that food insecurity is not happening in a vacuum. ... The most recent data has about 19% of households in New Mexico are receiving SNAP. So, there’s this big economic driver behind food insecurity, which I think is really obvious, but sometimes doesn’t get talked about as much,” Wildau said.

Even though the meals in New Mexico schools are free to all students, the amount of money the federal government reimburses to the district depends on if the child meets the federal criteria for free, reduced price or paid meals. This can create confusion, said Kemp, because the district still needs to get paperwork filled out by parents whose children qualify federally for free or reduced lunch, so that the federal government will still reimburse the district the right amount for those meals.

Feeding students is a lot more than putting food on trays, Kemp said. School districts have to order, warehouse, transport and prepare food, plus maintain equipment like plumbing and refrigerators. Finding staff is one of the biggest challenges for APS, Kemp said. Drivers — a full-time position in which workers deliver food to school kitchens — and part-time serving positions can be especially difficult to fill, she said.

“New Mexico has become one of the leaders in making healthy meals for all students, but with all these states coming on board, I think it’s obvious it should just become part of the federal program,” Kemp said. “We’re all saying, ‘You get your school books, you get your necessities to go to school, you should get a meal, too.’”