Bill would provide free lunches for every student regardless of income

BISMARCK, N.D. (KVRR) — Two proposed bills in the North Dakota legislature would give a free lunch to every student in public schools and remove the stigma of those already getting a free lunch.

House Bill 1491, co-sponsored by Senator Tim Mathern of Fargo, would give a free lunch to every student in public schools regardless of income.

An $89 million investment, Mathern says it’s on adults to make sure all children are treated the same way, and this includes a meal.

“They say, ‘where’s the $89 million?’ and I’m saying, ‘Well, the Governor is promoting a $500 million income tax reduction for wealthy people. Come on. Let’s not do that. Let’s spend some money on our kids.’ It actually saves some money too in that we don’t have to have a person at each school keeping track of who’s poor and who isn’t.”

House Bill 1494 states schools may not identify students using stickers or stamps or placing a child’s name on a list of students with meal debt.

A co-founder of Lunch Aid North Dakota says the group does not want a student to feel like they have to work for food in school.

“We understand the importance of hard work, but we don’t want to use it to stigmatize students. So, House Bill 1494 will remove any of these identifying marks, these sort of like scarlet letters if you will, to make it known students are caught up with their lunch accounts,” says Jason Boynton.

He says it could make it easier for people to move to the state knowing their child can get a free lunch.

“That’s like a secondary, great benefit that comes with having a universal school lunch. Every kid gets to eat but at the same time we will attract other people to the state. If we have this program in place and we’re trying to compete with neighboring states to get a labor force, something like a universal school lunch will bring people to our state. It will bring people to North Dakota to help fill these jobs that we really need filled,” said Boynton.

Mathern says he co-sponsored the bill because he believes it is discriminatory to lower income families.

He adds students should not be put in a position to identify themselves by income bracket.