PAW PAW, Mich. — In July of this year, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed the bipartisan education budget, which allocates $160 million dollars to provide all of Michigan's 1.4 million public school students free breakfast and lunch at school for one school year.
School districts are celebrating the move, as they say it drops the stigma of who receives a free meal and who doesn't, while others wonder how the state is able to afford such a feat.
Paw Paw Public Schools food service director Korrie Perkins has overseen school meals for the district for a decade. She says there is still a stigma for the students who receive a free lunch when in line with other students who pay.
Now that all students are eligible for free lunch, the stigma is gone and no student is left hungry.
"It's going to be a game changer for our district," she said
Paw Paw Public Schools is part of the 10 Cents A Meal Program, and specific students have been eligible for free or reduced meals for years. However, Perkins says even with multiple programs in place, when students had to pay for their own lunches again after COVID-19 incentives expired, they stopped buying lunch altogether.
"We ended up dropping about 50 percent in participation last year when the kids had to pay," she said.
According to Feeding America, one in eight children in the state are food insecure. That’s just more than 282,000 children. However, some estimates go all the way up to the 552,000 mark.
"How are they supposed to learn when all they're worried about is the rumbling in their stomach?" Perkins asked.
Kids Food Basket in West Michigan provides free meals to children who need it most. President and CEO Bridget Clark Whitney says now that the students they serve can eat two meals a day for free at school, their services and resources are able to expand by only having to provide the last meal of the day.
"Over the last three and half years in particular, we’ve experienced more need coming into Kids Food Basket than ever in our 21 years of serving the West Michigan community," Whitney said.
With all the positive response coming from schools and food pantries, others wonder how the state is able to afford it and if the money should be going towards other school incentives, like school security.
Governor Whitmer and other state representatives say Michigan was able to put more money into a rainy-day fund after COVID-19, and use it for things they deemed necessary. State Democrats say free school meals was top of their list.
“We know that that children in Michigan are capable of amazing things. We just need to set them up for success," Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist said.
They say they hope this continues not just for a single school year, but that the state is able to do this for many years to come.
"This is $160 million dollar investment and 60 of it is one time, so we’ll to work next year to make sure we can continue to support this expansion,” State Representative Rachel Hood said. "We are investing in our families and in our schools.”
No matter how this shook up at the state level, Perkins says the final product is all that families care about.
"Our kids don't care whether their plate is red or blue. They don't care what side of the aisle we're on. They just care that that plate's full," Perkins said.
Estimates are that free meals for a single school year will save families approximately $850 dollars a year.
