“During these uncertain economic times, families have taken to tightening their finances, and so we’ve seen a dramatic spike in the number of children who are receiving subsidized school meals. In fact, we are perilously close to running out of money to provide these meals, but we can’t let this happen” O’Connell said. “Our responsibility is to ensure that students who need these meals get these meals, because hungry children don’t learn. Assemblyman Torlakson’s legislation is the fix we need right now to continue serving these meals to our low-income students for the remainder of the school year.”

“Some of our country’s greatest visionaries saw the school lunch program as a way to help lift American families out of economic despair during the depression era.  They knew this early investment in our children would have long-term impacts on the health and education of America’s next work force,” said Tom Torlakson.  “Today, as more and more families face economic uncertainty and are forced to use this critical safety-net program, we can’t stand by and allow the funding to run dry.”

California’s school lunch program provided 28 million more meals last year than in 2007— a 4.5 percent surge.  We’ve seen an acceleration of the trend this year as our economy worsens.  Just since the beginning of the school year in September and October, schools have experienced a 12 percent increase in meal demand according to Department of Education surveys.  Historically, the state has experienced a 1 percent increase per year. 

Prior to the holiday season, O’Connell sounded the alarm that more students than anticipated have relied on school meals this year, and we will likely run out of state money to support the Free and Reduced-Price Meals program this fiscal year.  AB 95 calls for a state budget augmentation of $19.5 million to allow the California Department of Education to pay for the anticipated higher number of meals districts will serve this year and next.

Under California law, school districts are required to provide a nutritious meal to every low-income student.  The federal government provides between $2.17 and $2.57 for every free or reduced-price meal served, and the state provides an additional $0.2195 per meal. Recently enacted state law provided an additional $0.06 per free and reduced-priced meal on the condition that local educational agencies agree to not serve any food containing artificial trans fat or that have been deep fried, par fried, or flash fried.