Portland Public Schools announced this week that all district students will have access to free breakfast and lunch at school every day this coming year. Officials said the change is possible because of expanded federal eligibility requirements and additional funds from the state’s Student Success Act.
The change means universal school meals are accessible in all three of Oregon’s largest school districts. Beaverton is expanding free meals as well this fall, and Salem-Keizer already offers them.
But the push to make school meals more accessible is a statewide effort. In fact, one group wants to make it a top priority in the 2025 legislative session.
School Meals for All — which has been operating for years but was formalized last fall — is a coalition of students, school and community leaders, teachers and cafeteria workers, parents, food producers and more than 20 organizations, including the American Heart Association, the Oregon Food Bank and the Oregon Parent Teacher Association.
Their goal is to secure universal school meals for all Oregon students — all 550,000 of them.
“No matter where they live in the state,” coalition leaders wrote on their website, “a child shouldn’t experience hunger at school.”
The need for free school meals
Coalition advocates point to the passage of the Student Success Act in 2019 as a turning point for school meals in Oregon.
The law, which used a new tax on businesses to invest in a range of school improvements, dedicated money to things like early learning programs and ensuring full funding for graduation and career technical education initiatives. But the law also made Oregon a leader in addressing child hunger and nutrition through school meals, according to School Meals for All.
Shortly after state lawmakers approved the Student Success Act, the pandemic lockdowns gave families a taste of what universal school meals could look like, as districts received federal support to provide free meals to any family who wanted them.
Advocates argue that this lived experience proved that universal school meal policies are not only overwhelmingly popular but also simple and achievable.
But in the summer of 2022, the federal COVID-19 relief money used to pay for these meals expired when Congress failed to extend school meal waivers. Several states stepped up to fill the gap. By the end of last year, roughly nine states had passed universal school meals policies, and more were considering something similar.
Students at Rigler School select their daily required servings of fruits and veggies from a salad bar.
Phoebe Flanigan / OPB
Oregon came close with House Bill 3030, though it didn’t pass. The state did, however, still make historic investments in House Bill 5014 that same spring, which helped more individual schools provide universal school meals.
Now, School Meals for All advocates argue Oregon is lagging behind.
According to the coalition’s data, one in six children statewide doesn’t have enough food to eat; food insecurity varies depending on where families live.
The need for healthy, free food is about more than just physical health. Research shows that students who eat free and reduced-price meals at school do better socially and academically. Beyond that, offering universal school meals, according to one study published in the American Educational Research Journal, reduces bullying and prejudice against poorer students and, by extension, discipline.
“It really stood out to me that the benefits of introducing a universal school meal system most affected students who were already receiving free meals at school,” said Jacki Ward Kehrwald with Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon about the study.
“This drives home that it’s not only about who has food to eat,” she said, “it’s also about removing a segregated system that blatantly signals class differences to students, teachers and administrators.”
Coalition pushes for specific solutions
Oregon may be behind other states, but advocates think closing the gap is within reach.
According to the coalition’s data, 55% of Oregon schools provided school meals to all students through the federal Community Eligibility Program in the 2022-23 school year.
This past school year, that increased to 71% thanks to the federal rule change that expanded eligibility.
The coalition expects that more than 90% of Oregon schools will be able to participate in the upcoming school year.
To bring that number to 100%, the coalition is pushing for a few key asks in the 2025 legislative session.
First, they want Oregon lawmakers to establish school meals for all Oregon students and ensure that meals are funded at 100% of the federal reimbursement rate.
“We don’t yet have the estimate for what the price tag is on increasing the remaining schools and districts to get to 100%,” Ward Kehrwald told OPB, “but it’s reasonable to think that we might not need to allocate any additional funds.”
Ward Kehrwald said the funds for this program would come from business tax contributions to the Student Success Act and would not compete with other programs in the General Fund.
Coalition members say what students are eating — and how much time they have to eat — are also important.
The coalition wants state lawmakers to ensure that increases in school meals continue to include farm-to-school products. They also want the state to support schools in improving their equipment. Universal free meal programs could increase the number of students getting food, and some aging cafeterias aren’t equipped to meet that demand.
Lunch time at Rigler School.
Phoebe Flanigan / OPB
Lastly, the coalition wants Oregon lawmakers to establish a minimum “time to eat.” Members said longer lines can leave some students with less than five minutes to eat. Minimum eating times, they argue, would mean “less food waste, calmer cafeterias, better service and healthier eating habits.”
It’s not clear yet if the coalition will push for these changes in individual bills or one omnibus package in the upcoming legislative session.
“Part of our motivation is to create a durable and statewide policy with the certainty that families and students deserve, rather than continuing a year-by-year opt-in process,” Ward Kehrwald said.
More specifics are expected during legislative days this fall.