EDITORIAL: Lawmakers must act fast on hunger bills
Jun. 8—School may be all but over across the state, but lawmakers have plenty of remedial work to do before the summer ends.
Two separate measures aimed at making sure students from kindergarten through college have enough to eat are making their way through the Legislature — slowly. So slowly, in fact, that there is real danger the relatively modest spending packages will be left to die a quiet death when lawmakers leave for their own summer vacations.
This cannot be allowed to happen.
The first measure is aimed at the silent scourge of hunger among college-age students. More than 37% of the state's 250,000 public college students struggle with food insecurity, according to the Hunger Free Campus Coalition, which includes Salem State University, North Shore Community College and the University of Massachusetts, as well as advocacy groups such as Project Bread, the Greater Boston Food Bank and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. Black and Latino students are disproportionately affected.
North Shore Community College has long been a leader in the efforts to make sure students have the food they need. In 2019, the college teamed with local food pantries to offer a free mobile food market to students.
Patricia Gentile, NSCC president at the time, called the response "incredible."
"We have nearly 400 people signed up to participate and our students are now enjoying about 3,500 pounds of mostly fresh produce and fruit each market," she told The Salem News in 2019. The school also increased programs that offer food vouchers and made emergency loans available to students.
Now there is a proposal in front of lawmakers to expand the program to other schools across the state. The $2.7 million set aside for the program would come from American Rescue Plan Act money and surplus revenue that amassed thanks to healthy tax collections.
It's short money, and it should be a no-brainer. But while the legislation received a favorable vote from the Legislature's Joint Committee on Higher Education in April, it still must pass the House and Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker before the end of next month.
Meanwhile, another measure, this one ensuring a free lunch for every elementary and high-school student in the state, appears in danger of falling by the wayside due to legislative inaction.
The program was launched at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, essentially expanding the federal free lunch program to include all students, regardless of their family income level.
That program is set to expire July 1, and state lawmakers have yet to commit to taking it over. The House set aside $110 million for the meals in its proposed 2023 budget, but it is nowhere to be found in the Senate spending plan.
And that is a problem, because the program works, despite the mewlish cries from those who worry that food might be going to students whose families can afford to pay.
Income levels don't always tell the full story, advocates say. A family that earns "too much" under federal guidelines to qualify for free meals may still not have enough money for food if they are beset by high rent and unexpected bills.
And, as Adriana Mendes-Sheldon, a family engagement liaison with Woburn schools, said during a recent panel discussion hosted by Project Bread, "How can we expect hungry children to learn? We can't."
Senate leaders have at least expressed openness to the idea. But they have to do it soon, before the session closes. Students of all ages deserve a life without hunger.
"No student can learn when they're hungry, we know that," state Sen. Joan Lovely, D-Salem, a primary sponsor of the Senate version of the college food bill, said last week. "We must support students outside the classroom so they're ready to tackle the challenges inside the classroom ... and so they can go on and have fulfilling lives."
For that to happen, lawmakers must act now.
