Kids Need Lunch Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
This measure restructures school meal financing. It sets the national average free-lunch payment at $4.86 and ties future adjustments to the Consumer Price Index for food away from home. It replaces income-tiered lunch eligibility with free lunch for every child enrolled in a school that participates in the National School Lunch Program, removes reduced-price lunch references and special-assistance provisions, and leaves breakfast rules tied to the prior lunch eligibility provision. It also creates a USDA program to reimburse participating schools for delinquent meal debt within 180 days, after state agencies collect school food authority debt data, and requires GAO to report on the program within two years.
Who Benefits and How
Students in participating schools and families with unpaid meal balances benefit because lunch becomes free regardless of household income category and existing school meal debt can be cleared. School food authorities benefit from a higher per-lunch federal payment and reimbursement for delinquent debt that otherwise sits on school budgets.
Who Bears the Burden and How
USDA Food and Nutrition Service, state child nutrition agencies, school food authorities, and federal taxpayers carry the costs and administration. USDA must set the new payment, adjust it annually, create debt-reporting forms, route reimbursements within statutory deadlines, and coordinate a GAO review.
Key Provisions
- Sets the national average payment for each free lunch at $4.86 with annual food-away-from-home CPI adjustments.
- Requires all children enrolled in participating school lunch program schools to be eligible for free lunch.
- Repeals reduced-price lunch and special-assistance provisions that depend on income-tier categories.
- Creates a USDA reimbursement program for school meal delinquent debt and requires GAO to report on the program.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Raises National School Lunch Program free-lunch reimbursement to $4.86, makes all participating-school students eligible for free lunch, and reimburses schools for existing meal debt.
Key Policy Areas
Child Nutrition, Education, Appropriations
Primary Purpose
Raises National School Lunch Program free-lunch reimbursement to $4.86, makes all participating-school students eligible for free lunch, and reimburses schools for existing meal debt.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Students in participating schools
- Families with school meal debt
- School food authorities
- State child nutrition agencies
Identified Costs
- USDA Food and Nutrition Service
- State child nutrition agencies
- School food authorities
- Federal taxpayers
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Introduced in House
Mr. Krishnamoorthi introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
School food authorities, Schools with meal debt, Students in participating schools
Government Accountability Office, USDA Food and Nutrition Service
Families of schoolchildren, Families with school meal debt
State child nutrition agencies
State child nutrition agencies faces effects in multiple directions
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "program"
- → National School Lunch Program
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology