Examining the Reach of Universal School Meals in California

School meals have long played a key role in promoting students' physical well-being, and California became the first state to provide free school meals to all children regardless of income in 2022-23. At the start of a new academic year, how are California's school nutrition programs faring? While the total number of meals served matches pre-pandemic levels, low-income students are now eating fewer school meals compared to before the pandemic. Exploring ways to expand participation among this group will be important as the state works to refine implementation of universal school meals.

Currently, all California public schools, including most charters, must provide breakfast and lunch free of charge to every student who wants them; federal and state funds support the cost of the program. To date, seven additional states have adopted versions of a universal meals policy.

During the pandemic in fall 2020, the number of meals served (28 million) dropped precipitously from fall 2019 (64 million). By 2021, when schools returned to in-person instruction, the number of meals shot back up, but it took another two years to fully return to pre-pandemic levels.

The slow return to the pre-pandemic norm may be due to fewer children in schools-both because of gradually declining enrollment in many parts of the state and a sharp rise in chronic absenteeism. When we examine the number of meals served per enrolled student, we find that enrolled students are eating more school meals now compared to before the pandemic. Although the total number of meals served in October 2023 was up by just 1% from October 2019, the total number of meals served per enrolled student increased by 6% (10.3 to 10.9 lunches per month). With approximately 20 school days in a typical October, these averages imply that public school students ate roughly half of their lunches and about one in three of their breakfasts at school.

In contrast, low-income students were served fewer meals in 2023 compared to before the pandemic. Meals per month among low-income students who qualified for federal free and reduced-price meals dropped between 2019 and 2023 (from 14.1 to 12.1 for lunches), although they remain higher than the average for all students in both years. With the available data, it is not possible to determine how much of the decline is due to chronic absenteeism, which has skyrocketed in recent years. Because the data track students who qualified for low-cost meals, it is possible that changes in filling out applications or being enrolled via data matches with other programs drove the drop, although trends in school meal applications suggest this is not the case. From the state's perspective, maximizing applications for free and reduced-price meals is important because the cost of these meals is supported by federal funding.

These trends vary widely across counties, with several of the state's small counties seeing across-the-board increases in breakfasts and lunches served both overall and for low-income students. Among the state's largest counties, Los Angeles County saw the smallest drop in lunches served to low-income students (-0.7 meals per month), while Orange County saw the largest (-3.7 meals per month).

Statewide, one bright spot is that districts are now more likely to serve breakfast than they were before the pandemic. In fall 2019, 10% of districts that offered lunch did not serve breakfast. However, by fall 2023, only 12 districts (1%), serving far fewer than 1% of the state's students, did not offer breakfast. While students may not eat all the school meals they are offered, offering both breakfast and lunch provides better protection for children who are at risk of hunger.

California's universal meals program has the potential to help curb child hunger and set a strong foundation for student learning. Indeed, the state's budget anticipates modest growth in the universal meals program. Nationally, schools are often the best source of nutritious meals for schoolchildren, and students may eat more than a third of their total calories at school. By supplementing family food budgets, school meals also lower poverty. The universal meals program has allowed the state to support students whose families may be struggling financially but who may not have qualified for free and reduced-price meals in the past. Bringing participation in universal meals among low-income students back to pre-pandemic levels-here, reducing chronic absenteeism appears promising-could further advance the state's goals of helping students reach their full academic potential.