Gov. Cox signs bill expanding Utah’s school lunch program for struggling families

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox remembers visiting a public school in Layton a couple of years ago where many of the students and their families were facing rough economic times.

The principal showed the governor a pantry inside the school stocked with food for the kids to take home.

The extra food, the principal explained, was helping the children satisfy an essential education resource: Basic nutrition and sustenance.

The principal then added something Cox has not forgotten: “Kids can’t learn when they’re hungry. … Kids can’t learn when their thoughts are elsewhere.”

That compassionate impulse to feed and educate Utah’s kids is at the heart of House Bill 100, said the governor.

Cox, lawmakers and community advocates for fight against hunger gathered Tuesday at the Utah State Capitol to sign, ceremoniously, the bill passed during the recent Legislative session to provide school lunch at no cost to eligible students.

HB100, said Cox, “Isn’t just about providing school lunch — it’s about helping kids learn, and kids can’t learn when they’re hungry.”

What does HB100 do?

HB100 expands the number of Utah’s K-12 students eligible to receive free school lunch — while shielding participating kids from embarrassment and also aiming to reduce food waste.

A trio of provisions highlight HB100:

• First, all K-12 students currently eligible for “reduced price” meals will be moved to the “no cost” classification for the lunchtime meal. School breakfast is not included in the bill.
• Second, protecting kids receiving free school lunch from embarrassment.
• And third, limiting food waste by encouraging schools to expand lunch period times while implementing “shared tables” where students can return, say, sealed or unopened food items to be consumed by others.

Eliminating the “reduced price threshold” is a defining element of HB100, which was co-sponsored by Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Provo, and Sen. Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy.

The new legislation will reportedly provide no-cost meals for approximately 40,000 currently classified as “reduced price” children whose families are perhaps waging daily battles to stay in the middle class.

“These are families that a couple years ago probably would be considered middle class — but due to inflation and a number of other concerns, the price of food in particular has hit these families hard,” said Clancy during a bill presentation last month to lawmakers.

The price of a healthy meal in Utah’s San Juan County, he noted, “has gone up 77% since 2020.”

Allowing “reduced price school lunch” students to receive “no-cost” school lunch, Clancy added, would signal “a small adjustment to our social safety net” that can keep many Utah families on the path to self-sufficiency — and well-fed students succeeding in the classroom.

HB100 also requires schools to protect students who are receiving “no-cost” school lunch from being stigmatized or embarrassed. Special buttons, different-colored lunch trays or other things that might identify free-meal recipients to their classmates are prohibited.

“The shame and the stigma associated with participation in social safety net programs can sometimes actually be an inhibitor to participation in those programs,” Clancy told the Deseret News.

Utah schools would also be encouraged to implement “share tables” where unopened or sealed foods can be shared, instead of simply tossing it in the trash.

Lawmaker: ‘Common sense’ solutions to child hunger

During Tuesday’s event, Clancy said collaboration between lawmakers and community organizations such as the Policy Project and Utahns Against Hunger “found a common sense solution that doesn’t just address hunger — but also food insecurity, shame, stigma and many other things.”

As a police officer, Clancy has witnessed the heavy toll food insecurity can exact on Utahns — including many children.

“What HB100 represents is a system that’s coming together … for all those children who are in need.”

Cullimore saluted Clancy’s tenaciousness in pursuing the bill and the benefits it provides many of Utah children. “Thank you to everyone who participated and got it across the finish line.”

‘Legislators did the right thing’

Emily Bell McCormick, the founder and president of The Policy Project, said Tuesday that she fights back emotion thinking about the Utah children who will benefit from HB100.

“Our legislators did the right thing and got this passed for the kids,” she said.

Even for working families, rising housing costs and other expenses are burdening many, added Bell McCormick. The new school meal program will help lighten some of those burdens — while demonstrating the state’s investment in its youth.

Neil Rickard, a child nutrition advocate with Utahns Against Hunger added that HB100 helps benefit youth by improving upon existing school meal programs for students facing economic hardships during volatile periods.

“By eliminating the reduced price category, it’s just getting to that chunk of students who are in- between the reduced and free categories,” he said.

Contributing: Brigham Tomco