California officials are working on a plan to provide "universal free school meals" to all kids in the state.
The bill, called the “Free School Meals For All,” would create a statewide Universal Meal Plan that would begin in the 2022-2023 school year. Under the bill, free breakfast and lunch would be guaranteed for all California students and would remove the application process.
According to Bay Area lawmaker Nancy Skinner, who introduced the bill in March, it's all about making sure "no child goes hungry." She says the pandemic helped the bill.
"The pandemic absolutely helped because it laid bare to the fact that a lot of families depended on school meals to deal with hunger," Skinner said, "Once schools were closed due to the pandemic, all of sudden, more families went further into insecurity involving food."
Skinner believed the school meals program will get a lot of federal funding.