Free school meals program produces quick increases across Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - There is such a thing as a free lunch, at least for students at Minnesota schools. And the new universal free school meals program has led to schools serving 2.2 million more this September than the year before. But the lunches do come at a cost to taxpayers, and it's rising.

Gov. Tim Walz served up free helpings of orange chicken to students at Edgerton Elementary school in Maplewood Wednesday.

Months before donning the hairnet, he served up free meals by signing the bill erasing the cost for every student who wants school breakfast or lunch.

The cost was projected at $400 million over two years, but September data from schools showed almost 16 million free meals served and a new budget of $481 million.

"This is good news, but it also should be a wake-up call," the governor said. "We've got a lot of folks out there that that may be food insecure, moreso than we thought."

Academic research has shown some evidence of widespread benefits to students in districts where all students have access to free school meals.

"Improved academic achievement, improved school attendance, reducing food insecurity and improving nutrition," said Dr. Jennifer Gaddis, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Republicans have criticized the program for the cost overruns and as being a handout to wealthier families that didn’t already qualify for free meals.

But Dr. Gaddis says the biggest benefit goes to families that barely didn’t qualify, and eliminating any stigma is helpful.

She also points to a Rockefeller Foundation study that found taxpayer-funded school meals more than pay for themselves.

"They found that if you were to look at reductions in poverty and some public health measures that really school meals generate an additional roughly 19, $20 billion in economic value," she said.

"So it's a huge return on investment."

Minnesota Democrats say they’ve seen enough to know keeping universal free meals is non-negotiable even as the costs rise.

"We should all just know that this is something that we agree on as Minnesotans," said Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. "We're just going to feed kids."

Minnesota was the fourth state to adopt universal free meals. There are now eight.

And the federal government has given out grants — including here — to track the longer term effects.

We also asked several school districts for their data and got these responses:

Minneapolis Schools

Breakfast participation is up by about 9% and lunch is up by about 18% through December 15.

2023

• Breakfast 553,484
• Lunch 1,044,894

2022

• Breakfast 508,674
• Lunch 881,280

Anoka-Hennepin Schools

During the first half of the school year, September to December the stats on the number of breakfasts served increased by 2,417 per day and the number of lunches was up nearly 4,000 per day.

• Sept-December 2022:  545,435 Breakfasts total (7271 per day) 1,562,277 lunches total (21,112 per day)
• Sept-December 2023:  734,113 Breakfasts total (9788 per day) 1,882,800 lunches total (25,104 per day)

South St. Paul Schools

• 8.11% increase in breakfast  (They offered free breakfast for the previous school year as well.)
• 10.88% increase in Lunch

St. Paul Schools

• Breakfast +5.4% YTD (about 51% of all students eat breakfast at school this year)
• Lunch +7.2% YTD (about 74% of all students eat breakfast at school this year)
• 71% of SPPS students qualified for free/reduced lunch last year, meaning the majority of students were already getting free lunch. And we have had universal free breakfast for over 10 years.