North Dakota Senate Rejects Free School Lunches Then Votes to Increase Its Own Meal Budgets

A little over a week after North Dakota senators narrowly rejected a bill to provide universal free school lunches, the same legislature increased meal budgets for state employees—including themselves. 

The Grand Forks Herald reports that on Thursday, the Senate voted 26-21 to pass senate bill 2124, which will increase meal budgets from $7 to $9 in the morning, $10 to $14 in the afternoon and $17 to $22 in the evening. It would cost $1 million over 2 years, according to the Herald. It was sponsored by 3 Republicans and 1 Democrat in the Republican-controlled body. 

House Bill 1491—which fell short by one vote—would have provided lunch free of charge to students from families at 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $49,720 for a family of three.  (An earlier version of the bill would have covered all students regardless of income but was modified to garner more Republican votes.) The bill only funded the program for two years, until June 30, 2025, and would have come at a cost of $6 million. It fell by a 23-24 vote.

“Yes I can understand kids going hungry, but is that really the problem of the school district, is that the problem of the state of North Dakota? It’s really the problem of parents being negligent with their kids,” Senator Mike Wobbema said during the March 27 vote. Wobbema was one of the senators who voted in favor of boosting reimbursements for state workers like himself.

“There’s no underlying consistent philosophy to how we’re spending money in this session, and this is a classic example of it,” the state’s Democratic minority leader Kathy Hogan told the Grand Forks Herald.

The meal reimbursement was justified as necessary due to inflation. But parents trying to feed their kids are also dealing with inflation.

Early in the pandemic the federal government made school lunches free to every public school student in the country, but that expansion ended last September. Since then, states across the country have introduced bills meant to temporarily or permanently fund their own universal school lunch. 

California and Maine passed universal school lunch laws in 2021. Colorado made school lunches free through a ballot proposal in 2022. Minnesota made school lunches free this year.

A free school lunch bill could also make it into the delayed New York state budget, which was due April 1. Washington, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and North Carolina have also introduced bills, according to NPR. A Data For Progress poll found 74 percent of voters approve of universal school lunch.

This isn’t the only food program North Dakota residents are losing out on. The federal government also expanded the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also called food stamps early in the pandemic. The expansion ended in February, but North Dakota had already turned down extra SNAP benefits as of 2022.