Every weekday morning outside Lawrence, Taylor Hahn’s four children scramble to catch a 6:50 a.m. bus to school or pre-school. When they arrive, they’re greeted by a hot breakfast.

The meal is a critical part of their day.

Hahn’s two youngest, ages 5 and 3, both receive free school meals because they’re in foster care, though she and her husband are working toward adoption. Their oldest kids, 12 and 9, receive reduced-price meals. Hahn’s husband works as an operating engineer and she substitute teaches, but with the size of their family they’re “not overflowing with excessive cash.”

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, wants to eliminate costs for children who receive reduced-price meals, expanding the number of students eligible for free lunch. Her state budget proposal released last week includes $5.5 million to provide free meals for the roughly 36,000 students statewide who currently receive them at a reduced price.

Thousands of Kansas City-area students would benefit. About 4,600 students in Johnson County and about 2,700 students in Wyandotte County are approved for reduced-price lunches, though the Kansas City, Kansas, school district already provides free meals to its students.

Kelly’s plan would cover students like Hahn’s oldest two children. Her children, who attend McLouth USD 432, already often eat breakfast at school, but a fully free meal would make the decision even easier.

“It’s a massive difference in our household of not having to do lunches and breakfasts. Honestly, the breakfast part is almost more,” Hahn said, adding that if her children eat breakfast at home, “they’re getting up at like 5:30.”

Schools have long offered free and reduced-priced meals with federal assistance. In Kansas, about 40% of students – roughly 202,000 – are approved for free lunches, according to data from the Kansas State Department of Education. An additional 7.3% receive reduced-price lunches, which require students to pay 40 cents for lunch or 30 cents for breakfast.

But the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged interest in free meals for all students. From early in the pandemic through the summer of 2022, the United States Department of Agriculture, or USDA, which oversees federal child nutrition efforts, waived federal rules, in turn allowing districts nationally to provide free meals.

The no-charge meals proved popular with parents, educators and anti-hunger advocates, with many touting the intuitive understanding that well-fed children learn better than hungry children. Numerous schools that went to remote-only instruction early in the pandemic still offered meal pick-ups.

The free meals also delivered a reprieve from growing unpaid meal debt. While schools generally don’t refuse to feed children who can’t pay, families can be saddled with the debt. Kansas Appleseed, an organization that advocates for food access, estimated meal debt in Kansas schools to be approximately $23.5 million in 2022.

Fifteen states already subsidize reduced-price meals, according to Kansas Appleseed, including Arkansas and Colorado.

While free meals for every child don’t appear politically tenable in Kansas at the moment, anti-hunger advocates are making a push to end co-pays for reduced-price lunches as an interim measure. Kelly’s decision to include the idea in her budget gave the effort a big boost.

“By eliminating this burden, we can reduce childhood hunger, we can reduce the stigma our low-income students face in our school cafeterias, and we can increase academic success,” Kelly said in her State of the State address this month.

The rate of food insecurity – a lack of access to enough food for a quality life – in Kansas rose from 11.7% to 13.5% between 2020 and 2022, the latest year of data compiled by Feeding America, an anti-hunger charity. The rate was 14% in Wyandotte County and 9.2% in Johnson County.

One in five Kansas children are food insecure, said Haley Kottler, who focuses on anti-hunger advocacy at Kansas Appleseed. Under Kelly’s plan, nearly half of students in the state would eat free school meals, which Kottler said would be a “huge success.”

“What we see if eliminating the reduced price co-pay is really targeted financial relief for Kansas families who need it the most,” Kottler said. “What we know is that low-income families spend about a third of their income on food costs, so these families will get this targeted relief and they are the ones who will directly benefit from this policy.”

Under the USDA’s current income eligibility guidelines, families who make under 130% of the federal poverty level are eligible for free meals. For the current school year, that’s $40,560 for a household of four.

Families earning up to 185% of the federal poverty level, or $57,720 for a household of four, are eligible for reduced-price meals.

At McLouth USD 432, where Hahn’s children go to school, 43% of students are approved for free lunches and an additional 6.4% are approved for reduced-price lunches. If her family didn’t have to pay anything for her two older children, like a significant chunk of the current student population, it would mean “everything,” she said.

Even setting aside essentials, other expenses quickly add up. Braces, dance classes, softball and T-ball and band instruments all eat into paychecks.

“Even if it’s a small amount, it’s still a huge difference and it goes toward our kids and the ability to do the things that they can or want to do,” Hahn said.

Lawmakers weigh meals plan

Whether Kelly’s plan will become law is unclear. Lawmakers will develop the state budget over the coming months, likely culminating in its passage in April. Republicans have already put forward their own budget plan, which doesn’t include the school meals proposal.

House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, sounded skeptical of the proposal immediately following the State of the State speech, asking how much it would cost. The $5.5 million cost was announced the following day.

“I mean, she’s talking about being fiscally conservative,” Hawkins said. “That’s what she talks about out there. But then she proposes all these spending increases on different things.”

Sen. Rick Billinger, a Goodland Republican who chairs the Senate Ways and Means Committee, the chamber’s budget-writing committee, said his committee would examine the proposal.

“We all want to do all we can for our less fortunate Kansans, whomever they might be — especially children. We need to make sure that they’re fed,” Billinger said.

The Kansas State Board of Education in December narrowly voted against including universal free school meals in their list of legislative priorities for the 2025 session. While the board plays no formal role in determining whether the Legislature will pay for more free meals, its recommendations can carry weight with lawmakers.

Danny Zeck, a Republican board member whose district includes much of northeast Kansas and part of Wyandotte County, said while it’s up to each school district to decide whether to expand free lunch access, he personally opposes the idea. Instead, he wants to see the state offer fewer free meals.

“I’m not a free lunch kind of guy,” said Zeck, who operated a car dealership for nearly 30 years. “I’m a free enterpriser and if you get out and you work, I don’t like putting it in people’s heads when they’re little kids that it’s free free free.”

Board member Melanie Haas voted in favor of the recommendation. Haas, whose district includes parts of Johnson and Wyandotte counties, said “hungry kids can’t concentrate.”

“Anything we can do to get kids fed, breakfast and lunch, would be fantastic,” Haas said.

In addition to Kansas City, Kansas, schools, Topeka public schools also provide free meals.

Leigh Ann Wilbur, the child nutrition services district manager for Topeka schools, said transitioning to free meals wasn’t a huge change because the district had already offered free meals to a large percentage of students. Roughly three out of every four students are approved for free or reduced-price meals in the district.

The main change has been the equality between students, she said.

“There’s no stigma that’s going to be attached to anyone,” Wilbur said. “Everyone comes through the lunch line. Everyone grabs a meal. Nobody talks about paying at the end. Everybody walks on out and sits down in the lunchroom.

The KCK district’s nutrition director declined an interview request.

Removing ‘barriers’ at school

Emporia Public Schools hasn’t gone as far as providing free meals for all students, but in 2023 eliminated the co-pay for reduced-price meals – the same idea put forward by Kelly. The decision was driven in part by Jami Reever, a board member who is also the executive director of Kansas Appleseed.

The move cost the district about $32,000 during the previous school year. About 481 students – or nearly 11% of the student population – were approved for reduced-price meals that year.

As the board contemplated the decision, Reever said members increasingly realized the change could have a significant effect. Districts increasingly must prioritize helping the “whole child” – physical, social and emotional needs, in addition to academics, she said.

“It just became clear to me that we need to remove any and all barriers kids are facing when they come to school,” Reever said.

For Hahn, the parent of four outside Lawrence, the prospect of free school meals calls to mind her children’s future. One child will be old enough next year to join the school band and will need an instrument – and that’s just one looming expense.

The 30 or 40 cents per meal, per student, adds up over time. Over the course of a whole year, it’s hundreds of dollars.

That’s not lost on Hahn.

“Any little effect financially on us helps,” she said.

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