The End of Free School Lunches

The winter 2018 issue of the Masonic Outreach magazine brought to light an issue plaguing families and schools across Missouri — school lunch debt. This problem particularly comes to light for families that have incomes too high to qualify for free or reduced lunches but are still struggling financially.

An unexpected side effect of the pandemic was the elimination of this problem. Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to help children maintain access to meals during the widespread closure of schools. The bill provided flexibility to schools to distribute meals while also making school meals temporarily free for all students.

When the program was set to end in June, Congress extended the program through the summer in the Keep Kids Fed Act. However, this ended in the fall.

The end of universal free school meal waivers came at a time of rocketing food prices. The USDA estimates that food prices are about 10% higher this year over last, and it will likely increase another 5% to 6% this year. Families are once again struggling.

Why are we returning children in our schools to food insecurity? This is a question that many states are asking, and there are bills being proposed, including in Missouri, to address this question. But in the meantime, we are back to the food insecurity issues that plagued us before the pandemic, along with past due school lunch balances.

The Masonic Home’s Creating-A-Partnership (CAP) Program can help with this issue, as it did pre-pandemic. Lodges and Chapters can reach out to their local schools to see if this is a problem in their community. If yes, this is a great opportunity for us to partner together to reduce or eliminate this burden off of schools and families.

The Masonic Home extended its increased match this year, so for every dollar a Lodge or Chapter contributes, the Masonic Home will match with two dollars. There is the potential for $45,000 in Lodge/ Chapter funds and the matched Masonic Home funds to go back into your community to help solve this problem.

Freemasonry in Missouri has the ability to step into communities to help our children. There is no question of our support for education and for the children in our communities — it just makes sense to come together once again to provide assistance for those in need.