During the COVID-19 pandemic, a waiver allowed all children in the U. S. to eat free school lunches. That waiver has ended, but many Kansas schools are finding a way to keep feeding all of their students for free. Some Kansas school districts are using a special provision under the USDA’s National School Lunch Program that allows them to recoup most or all of the cost of offering free meals at school.
Kansas will see a nearly five-fold increase in the number of school sites using that provision to keep universally free lunches for their students. According to the Kansas Department of Education, nearly 150 Kansas schools across 35 Districts will use the provision this coming school year, compared to just 33 this past year. Topeka’s USD 501 School District will become the first in the state to offer free lunches to every student, starting this fall.
