As the school year begins, thousands of Michigan children are eligible for free school meals, according to Michigan Radio. While free and reduced lunch programs are great, Poverty Solutions analyst Amanda Nothaft called universal free lunch “a fantastic idea.”
“Kids can’t learn with an empty stomach,” she said. “Just the impact of school meals on behavior, discipline, learning…growth, nutrition...just all of these different things that it touches. So many things. It's so important.”
“Especially depending on where you are, you're missing kids. Places where the cost of living is really high, that 185 doesn't go as far as it does in other places,” Nothaft said. “That's another reason why I think the universal meals are great, because it's those families in between that really could benefit.”
