Every Broward district school will receive $500 to help provide lunches for students in need.
The Broward School Board approved the measure unanimously on Tuesday, allocating the small amount to cushion the end of a program that made it possible for all students to eat free lunch for the last couple years.
Due to COVID-era relief money, the district had enough federal grant money to provide free lunch to everyone for several years, regardless of income. That money has run out.
For the 2025-26 school year, students will need to apply to receive free and reduced lunch. To qualify, it will depend on their household's income, as it was prior to COVID.
In the first 30 days of the school year, however, the Food and Nutrition Services Department will be providing lunches for students on paid and reduced lunch to help ease the transition. Some students who are already on assistance, like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will not need to pay for meals.
The small amount committed sparked debate among school board members — who worry that $500 doesn’t cover the scope of student meal debt or solve student hunger. With meal prices at $3 for elementary meals and $3.50 for high school meals, providing free lunches for the full school year across all grade levels would cost about $12 million.
The $500 pledge would provide about 142 to 167 meals per school — some Broward schools have thousands of students.
"What I worry about is that this is performative," Broward school board member Dr. Allen Zeman said, "that we're going to say to the public, 'Hey, here's $500 per school,' without saying, 'oh, that's 160 meals total, which will do nothing for the hunger of students in Broward County.' That is insufficient. If we want to do something, let's do it. Let's get into the budget."
School board member Rebecca Thompson, who sponsored the measure, defended it by saying it at least gets the district started on the path of a better solution.
"Worrying about their next meal should be the last thing on our students' minds," Thompson said. "Do I think that is going to solve student hunger? Of course not. However, we are in a budget situation that we are trying to figure out," referring to the $28 million frozen by the Trump administration.
Superintendent Howard Hepburn discussed the freeze ahead of the lunch debt relief measure, saying that because of it, the district isn't able to adjust its budget accordingly. He added the district is relying on "carry-forward dollars," but it "will only extend for about two months before we begin to see significant impacts on our fund balance."
If federal funds are not released soon, Hepburn said he’ll come up with an action plan that may include changes to staffing levels.
The board will revisit the amount allocated in a few months after they get a better sense of the what's needed to really address student hunger and meal debt.
Learn more about applying for free and reduced-price lunches, including the link to the application, here.
