Universal School Meal State Policies’ Effects on Food Security

The U.S. School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program are the largest child nutrition programs in America, providing nutritious meals to some 30 million children.¹  The 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act helped improve the nutritional quality of school breakfast and lunch meals, and research indicates these meals have higher nutritional quality than a school-aged child’s overall diet.²  But stigma exists around free or reduced-price meals and strict income guidelines that exclude families just above cut-off points, both deter participation and prevent many food-insecure households from participating.

However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the US government provided free meal waivers for all K-12 students, waiving the income eligibility requirements. These waivers expired in 2022, prompting several states to adopt their own “School Meals for All” (SMFA) policies to maintain universal access to free school meals. In June 2025, the results of a study by Dania Orta-Aleman, PhD, Marlene Schwartz, PhD, et al., “Statewide Universal School Meal Policies and Food Insecurity in Households with Children”, examining these state programs was published in American Journal of Preventative Medicine. Specifically, the study focused on whether households in states with the SMFA policies experienced lower levels of food insecurity compared to those in states without such policies.

Method

In 2022-2023, the researchers surveyed more than 3,300 caregivers of public or charter school K-12 students in eight states.  Four of the states (California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont) adopted SMFA, and the other four states did not (Arizona, Texas, Illinois, and New Hampshire), which served as a comparison group.  The team measured the level of household food insecurity using USDA’s Food Security Survey Module. Additional care was taken to control for confounders associated with food insecurity and isolate the effect of the SMFA through restricting survey participation to those not eligible for free and reduced-price meals prior to 2020.

Key Findings

• Households residing in SMFA states reported lower rates of food insecurity, particularly among families eligible for free and reduced-price meals, but also among households just above the income eligibility cutoff.
• While this study did not try to understand the mechanisms of this effect, other research on SMFA programs found them to be simpler to administer and effective at reducing the stigma of free and reduced-price meal programs, which ultimately results in greater student participation.  For example, in traditional income cut-off programs, many eligible students miss out—34% of full-price payers and 28% of reduced-price payers are eligible for free or reduced-price meals but are not certified due to reporting or administrative errors.³

Policy Implications

• Expanding SMFA to the federal level could:
  • Increase participation by reducing stigma.
  • Simplify administration.
  • Ensure eligible children are not excluded due to paperwork errors.
  • Provide modest household savings that can be used for other needs, further stabilizing food access.
• Such policies may also improve educational outcomes by reducing hunger-related barriers to learning.

Conclusions

• SMFA policies were linked to lower household food insecurity among families with school-aged children, especially for families near or just above the free and reduced-price meal eligibility thresholds.
• The study supports permanent expansion of SMFA as a strategy to reduce child hunger, improve health, and enhance educational outcomes.

Read the full article here: https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(25)00433-7/fulltext

Additional links for further study:

Link to USDA Food and Nutrition Service overview: https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp

USDA Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010:  https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/healthy-hunger-free-kids-act

COVID-19 Waivers:  USDA page on waivers: https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/covid-19-child-nutrition-response-waivers

State Policies:  a state policy summary from Food Research & Action Center (FRAC): https://frac.org/universal-school-meals

Educational Outcomes:  links between nutrition and learning, e.g., CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/npao/impact.htm

Notes:

¹ Statewide Universal School Meal Policies and Food Insecurity in Households with Children Orta-Aleman, Dania et al. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 0, Issue 0, 107942

² Au LE, Gurzo K, Gosliner W, Webb KL, Crawford PB, Ritchie LD. Eating School Meals Daily Is Associated with Healthier Dietary Intakes: The Healthy Communities Study. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2018;118(8):1474-1481.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JAND.2018.01.010

³Milfort R, Taylor J, May L, Collins M. Third Access, Participation, Eligibility, And Certification Study (APEC-III), SY 2017-18. U.S. Department of Agriculture; 2021. Accessed August 12, 2024. https://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/resource-files/APECIII-Vol1.pdf