Baldwin County’s school system is growing at a rapid clip and won’t be considered Kamala Harris-Tim Walz territory anytime soon.

But officials in the large school system in one of the most conservative and fastest-growing counties in the state backed a policy last spring that is now drawing national attention ever since the Democratic vice president tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. The Baldwin school system, like the entire state of Minnesota, is offering universal free breakfast and lunch to its students regardless of income.

“I think it’s another indication of the Baldwin County School System trying to be innovative and community friendly,” said Superintendent Eddie Tyler. “We know people are struggling. Look at the economy. We’re not getting into politics, but people are struggling, and this is just another opportunity to reach out to the community to say, ‘we’re here for you.’”

The free breakfast and lunch policy to start the 2024-2025 school year in Baldwin County is one of a growing number of school systems in Alabama to offer the meals to all students. With the Jefferson County School System also on board, the six largest school districts in the state – representing over 191,000 students in Alabama – are covered through federal and local funds to provide meals to all students.

A universal statewide program is still lacking, let alone being discussed two years after pandemic-era funding ran out on free meals for all public schools. Only nine states have a universal statewide program that provides meals to students regardless of their family’s income. That includes Minnesota, which became the fourth state to do so in early 2023.

The subject is drawing newfound attention as Walz joins Harris on the national stage this week during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Walz, during his speech Wednesday, spoke up his state’s program by criticizing conservative states for “banning books” while Minnesota was “banishing hunger.”

“This is definitely shining a spotlight on the benefits of a free meal service,” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokesperson with the national School Nutrition Association based in Arlington, Va. “Hunger does not discriminate based on income level and a student can have trouble focusing on their studies. We need to make sure every child has equal access to a healthy meal at school.”

Though Harris’s initial policy platform does not include a call for a federal meal program for students, the addition of Walz to the top of the Democratic ticket is drawing a focus on the issue and is stirring a policy debate on whether taxpayers should foot the bill.

“It’s a good idea,” said David Schlutz, political science professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., referring to the Minnesota program that began last year. “Kids shouldn’t be hungry during the day. It also seems to be popular. But we don’t have a clear picture on the total costs of it.”

District’s decision

In Alabama, unlike Minnesota, leaving the decision on whether the taxpayers should provide free meals to students is up to the individual districts.

Eric Mackey, the Alabama state superintendent, said he doesn’t anticipate anything will change anytime soon on the stance. He said more schools are qualifying for free breakfast and lunches because the U.S. Department of Agriculture, last fall, lowered the eligibility requirements for a school or an entire district to be eligible for federal funding to support free breakfast and lunches.

The USDA, under the Biden Administration, expanded the community eligibility provision (CEP) in the federal program to allow schools or districts with at least 40 percent of students poor enough to qualify for federal meals to provide free breakfast and lunches for all. The threshold dropped last year to 25 percent, meaning more districts – like Baldwin and Jefferson counties – considered the program.

Participation is voluntary, meaning not every school system that meets the new thresholds is obligated to provide free breakfast and lunches. In Alabama, 536 schools adopted free breakfast and lunches under the new CEP guidelines, or 66 percent of the 812 schools that are eligible under the new guidelines, according to data comprised by the Food Research & Action Center.

CEP runs on a four-year cycle, meaning that at the end of the fourth year, a school system must reevaluate their eligibility and funding formula on how to proceed with the program.

John Wilson, the CFO at the Baldwin County School System, said that the Baldwin County School System is getting up to 80 percent of the costs reimbursed by the federal government. The local funds to support the program will be around $2 million this year, he said.

“A local community has to think about how do we implement this?” Mackey said. “We are excited when districts do this. We want to support them. We don’t have plans to force CEP statewide.”

Most of the state’s schools in the Black Belt region are also covered by the federal government including Pickens County, where 30.1 percent of children live in poverty, according to U.S. Census figures. The national average of children in poverty is 12.4%.

“As long as the participation rate is good, there is no cost to our system,” said Carmen Burton, the school system’s child nutrition program director.

In Decatur, there is no cost to the school system as the entire meal program is covered by the federal government. That’s because the school system has more than 60 percent of its student body automatically eligible for free school meals, also known as the Identified Student Percentage or ISP. A school’s ISP is determined by those whose families participate in certain federal programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

“The benefit is that all students will be able to eat breakfast and lunch for free without the hassle of filling out paperwork,” said Decatur Schools Superintendent Michael Douglas. “This ensures that a student is properly nourished and ready to learn. This is especially beneficial for middle-class families that do not quite qualify for free or reduced lunch but are struggling financially due to rising food costs.”

Statewide chances

Douglas said he thinks a statewide program – if the numbers worked – “would be tremendous.”

“Although free and reduced numbers vary from district to district, every school system deals with some level of food insecurity,” Douglas said. “If we expect students to learn, we must first address their most basic needs.”

State Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, said the closest example of a statewide meal program for students was backed by lawmakers last spring that included $10 million for Summer EBT administrative funding allowing schools to assist families who benefit from free and reduced lunch programs while school is out during the summer months.

Drummond said when it comes to providing funds to feed children, she does not believe the issue in Alabama is a “partisan” matter, especially in a state with a poverty rate that is among the highest in the nation.

Alabama State Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, who is also the chair of the state’s education budget, said the state has never looked into a universal meal program for K-12 students, nor has it come up as a request from a member of the state’s education community.

“We have customarily left it to individual districts to make that decision,” Orr said, echoing Mackey’s comments.

Drummond said if the issue surfaced as a topic of concern, she believes there would be bipartisan interest.

“I don’t think that is a blue or a red issue,” Drummond said. “It’s an issue, period. I really think that even my colleagues on the other side of the aisle cannot say, ‘we can’t feed our children.’ I applaud what Minnesota has done. But we in Alabama, this is not a partisan issue.”

Costly program

The issue in Minnesota has had political opposition, primarily from Republicans wary over the costs of offering free lunches and breakfast to all students.

Walz cautioned lawmakers last year that the program could be expensive, though no one has a firm idea on the price tag. Media accounts after Walz signed the policy into law estimated the price tag at $200 million a year.

Schultz, the political science professor in Minnesota, said the state benefitted from an $18 billion budget surplus, and that Democrats – who enjoy majorities in state government – backed free breakfast and lunches for students, a budget priority for Walz.

Schultz, though, said that economists are forecasting a $1 billion structural deficit, and that lawmakers will have to make some difficult choices in early 2025. He said that the free breakfast and lunch program is “one of the most expensive” new initiatives lawmakers have approved in recent years.

Republicans have concerns over the costs and believe a national discussion over the free lunch and breakfast policy should include an assessment on the needs.

Former President Donald Trump’s administration captained the early efforts for free breakfast and lunches via a pandemic-era waiver through the 2022-2023 school year. But congressional Republicans appear hesitant toward moving forward with universal policies. A House Republican budget proposal called for eliminating the CEP utilized by schools throughout Alabama including Baldwin and Jefferson counties – as well as a total of 40,000 schools nationwide.

Project 2025, the controversial blueprint by the Heritage Foundation on what a future Republican presidential administration should look like, also opposes federal school-meal programs. The document criticized free student meals as “entitlement programs” that need scaling back.

Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, has repeatedly said he does not support Project 2025.

Republican Minnesota state Sen. Andrew Mathews said his state already has a robust free and reduced lunch program, and that the new Walz-backed universal free lunch and breakfast program is mostly helping families “that could already afford it.”

Mathews said that Walz and the state’s Democrats “falsely attacked” Republicans who opposed the universal program as “wanting kids to go hungry.”

“Every school official I spoke to also opposed the free lunch program and told me they’d rather be able to use their portion of the $400 million to address other needs since all the schools provided meals to those who needed them already,” Mathews said. “States must also address the broader issue of inflationary increases on groceries and reducing state taxes for working families can accomplish the same goal without costing the taxpayers even more. The cost of these programs are only expected to increase.”

Benefits

Darcy Stuber, public policy chair for the Minnesota School Nutrition Association, said there is always a concern about maintaining funding the statewide program, but added that Minnesota “has always put children first.”

She said that providing meals to students is similar to taxpayers supporting the costs of books, desks, and other school materials.

“It’s part of the school day,” she said. “For our students, it’s nice that they come to school knowing their books, laptops and meals are taken care of and are part of that day.”

Stuber said she is excited about seeing the issue brought to a national spotlight with hopes of eliminating the paperwork and administrative headaches of operating a school meal program.

“It gives us an opportunity that we’d feed all students with no other factors to consider,” she said. “We don’t have to contact families for payment. It levels the playing field. Go to lunch, kick back and relax and enjoy their day.”