What Does School Have to Do With Food Access?
This post was originally published for Komeeda.
Quite a bit, actually.
As states across the country continue to grapple with the decision of whether or not to reopen schools, conversations over the intricately linked issue of food access for students have blossomed. In 2018, the National School Lunch Program, which is the US’ second largest food assistance program, provided almost 30 million free or low-cost meals to students in Pre-K up to 12th grade daily. In 2016, almost 72% of students received free or low-cost meals in public schools in NYC. For many students, schools provide a stable, consistent and necessary source of meals. With schools currently closed or slowly reopening, students have lost their access to meals, prompting various organizations to fill the gap to reduce the possibility of students going hungry as much as possible. According to a study by the Urban Institute, only 61% of parents whose families received free or reduced-price meals during the school year reported receiving school meal assistance during closures.
With schools closed, many students currently run the risk of going hungry daily.
Photo by Kyo Azuma
Who is Hurt Most by School Closures?
Minority and low-income students are disproportionately affected by the lack of free meals at school. Let’s look at why that is, and what the effects are for these students.
The factors contributing to why minority and low-income students face food insecurity are thin, silky threads of a very complex web. They are deserving of their own breakdown because they are pieces of a much bigger picture involving larger systemic issues, but we’ll briefly glance at what those factors are for now. One cannot examine poverty without addressing structural racism because the two are inextricably linked to one another. In picking apart why minority and low-income students in particular face greater challenges with food access, consideration must be made for lack of equity in education and employment opportunities resulting in lower income levels (on top of discriminatory practices regarding compensation), higher rates of incarceration, and inaccessibility to adequate housing and healthcare, amongst other factors. There is quite a bit involved here, but let’s continue on. If you would like to learn more, this 2018 report from Center for Hunger Free Communities is an informative, stat-heavy resource looking deeper into some of the factors above.
An additional challenge unique to socioeconomically disadvantaged students is that the food surrounding schools they attend is often far from being nutritious, contributing to long-term health issues. Over half of schools with a majority of Hispanic students had a fast-food restaurant nearby, compared to 21% of schools with a majority of white students, according to a 2016 study conducted in the US. The story is similar for schools with a majority of Black students versus white students, as well. Further, there is a disparity in the presence of fast-food restaurants near public schools compared to private schools, with over half of public schools having at least one fast-food restaurant nearby. This essentially means that not only are schools vital for basic food access for socioeconomically disadvantaged students, but they can also double down as the sole source of nutritious meals.
Food insecurity is incredibly detrimental for children, impairing physical and cognitive development, impacts academic performance, and creates struggles which can extend well into adulthood, such as chronic health issues and mental health challenges. There is a vicious cycle stemming from food insecurity — impairments early in life can result in financial instability in adulthood, furthering the inability to access nutritious food which exacerbates pre-existing health conditions, and deepens a reliance on food assistance programs for both the individual and their family.
What Happens Now?
This is a question bubbling up from the devastating impact of school closures on food access.
Currently, there are programs in place attempting to ensure that kids are fed, such as the USDA’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). In schools with at least 40% of students in poverty, CEP kicks in and provides free meals to every student in the school, doing away with eligibility requirements of individual students and families. Additionally, the pandemic EBT (P-EBT) is available to parents of students who normally received free lunch at school.
While school closures are affecting socioeconomically disadvantaged students harder than their counterparts, food access is becoming an issue across the board as the $600 unemployment benefit has expired and parents continue to experience layoffs from work. As such, there are demands for CEP to be extended to cover all schools, regardless of the proportion of students in poverty. There are calls to make free meals at school available to all students, with a bill introduced to Congress which, if enacted, will provide free breakfast and lunch to every student in 2020 and 2021, regardless of household income level.
The larger question still remains: what happens to school meals after the pandemic with long-standing economic hardships remaining?
