The House extended a school meal lifeline; families are now waiting on the Senate

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June 23rd, 2022

Los Angeles Unified School District food service workers from left, Tomoko Cho, Aldrin Agrabantes, April Thomas, and Marisel Dominguez, pre-package hundreds of free school lunches in plastic bags on Thursday, July 15, 2021, at the Liechty Middle School in Los Angeles. Flush with cash from an unexpected budget surplus, California is launching the nation's largest statewide universal free lunch program. When classrooms open for the fall term, every one of California's 6.2 million public school students will have the option to eat school meals for free, regardless of their family's income. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Lawmakers are racing the clock to pass a bill that would extend pandemic school meal waivers through the summer and next school year.

The House on Thursday passed a nearly $3 billion bill, 376-42, that would continue to provide more free meals for lower income families but not for all students who had been receiving them for the past two years.

Schools have felt the strain of rising food, gas and labor costs. Waivers passed by Congress at the start of the pandemic gave relief from regulations that monitor how, when and who gets school meals that expire in seven days.

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