Sponsors (49)
The bill expands universal free-meal access and streamlines some program rules—improving child nutrition and reducing paperwork—at the cost of higher federal spending and transitional administrative burdens, while risking coverage gaps for students who previously relied on a reduced-price subsidy.
Students from households up to 224% of the federal poverty level gain eligibility for free school meals, reducing child hunger and improving nutrition for many children.
Medicaid-eligible children (including those on SSI or in adoption/kinship assistance) are automatically certified for free meals, giving them access without paperwork and reducing stigma.
Raising the Community Eligibility Provision multiplier to 2.5 makes more schools eligible for universal free meals, expanding school-level coverage and simplifying meal delivery for entire schools.
Some low-income students who previously paid a reduced price could face higher out-of-pocket meal costs (or lose a gradual subsidy), causing reduced participation and worse nutrition for those children.
Expanding free-meal eligibility and direct certification will increase federal reimbursements and program costs, raising taxpayer expenditures.
Local school districts may face added budget pressure if they choose to continue serving subsidized meals without a federal reduced-price reimbursement to offset those costs.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Removes reduced-price meal reimbursements and expands free school meal eligibility to children at or below 224% of poverty, with Medicaid-based direct certification and administrative rule changes.
Official title: To amend the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 and the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to eliminate reduced price breakfasts and lunches and to require that the income guidelines for determining eligibility for free breakfasts and free lunches be 224 percent of the poverty level, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 7, 2025 by Josh S. Gottheimer · Last progress April 7, 2025
Eliminates federal reimbursements for reduced-price school breakfasts and lunches and expands eligibility for free school meals to more children. The bill raises the income threshold for free meals to 224% of the poverty level, authorizes direct certification of children for free meals using Medicaid-related records (including certain SSI, adoption assistance, and kinship guardianship cases), requires school meal claim adjustments retroactively to the first day of the school year, and sets the Community Eligibility Provision multiplier to 2.5 beginning in school year 2025-2026.