Hundreds of schools across Tennessee may be forced to stop serving free lunch and breakfast to all students if legislation approved by the U.S House Education and Workforce Committee becomes law.
More than half of the schools in Hamilton County offer free meals to all students, and if the Improving Child Nutrition and Education Act of 2016 is made into law, this number would decline, according to Carolyn Childs, director of school nutrition for the Hamilton County Department of Education.
"This would really impact schools in a negative way," Childs said. "Children can't learn if they're hungry."
The legislation, largely supported by House Republicans, aims to save money by scaling back the number of schools in which all students receive free or reduced-price meals. The bill would raise the threshold for a government program called the Community Eligibility Provision, which can provide free meals to all students at schools in districts with high poverty rates.
In order to qualify for community eligibility, a school or group of schools within a district must have at least 40 percent of its students who are eligible for free meals by direct certification, which means their family receives certain government assistance. If passed, the new law would require 60 percent of students be eligible for free meals through direct certification in order for a school to offer free meals to everyone.
Under the legislation, students qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch at schools nationwide will continue receiving free meals, but the school would have to return to the traditional model of using meal applicants from individual households to determine free lunch eligibility.
Statewide, 925 schools qualify to provide free meals to all students, according to Ashley Ball, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education.
She said the community eligibility provision allows schools and districts to lower administrative costs.
"They do not have to maintain free and reduced applicants," she said. "And they do not have to identify a student's status in order to record their meals."
Childs said there are many benefits to being able to provide free meals to all students at 47 schools in Hamilton County and not having administrative barriers in place.
"It takes away the stigma a child or family might have about a free meal," Childs said. "It ensures that everyone has the opportunity to eat, and eat a nutritious meal."
She said over her nine years leading the district's nutrition program she's seen many kids who do not qualify for free lunch or whose parents did not sign them up for the program go hungry at school. She added the problem with hunger in Hamilton County reaches much further than people realize, and many students depend on receiving breakfast and lunch at school.
"Our goal is to feed kids," she said. "We are not about trying to limit schools or limit kids."
House Republicans, however, argue that the legislation would save taxpayer dollars by scaling back free meals for students who attend those high-poverty schools, but don't qualify for free or reduced meals.
"This is hardly unreasonable and it's hardly unfair," said Rep. Todd Rokita of Indiana during the House Education and Workforce Committee hearing in May.
Democrats objected to the efforts to save money on school meals and to loosen the nutrition standards. Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the panel, said the bill would "cut budgets instead of feeding our children."
Many critics of the bill do support its measure to allow a wider variety of foods to be sold in lunch lines, an attempt to provide flexibility to schools that have complained that the Obama administration's healthier school meal rules are too restrictive and not appealing enough to students.
These rules have been phased in since 2012 and set fat, sugar and sodium limits on foods in the lunch line and beyond. They require more whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
Childs said this portion of the legislation would be helpful to Hamilton County because it would give school cafeterias a little relief from the mandates of the last five years.
She said there are pros and cons to the regulations in place.
"They can tie our hands," she said. "But they also encourage healthy meals."
Childs said Hamilton County strove to offer healthy and balanced meals to students before the regulations took effect, and that many of those regulations have been hard to implement and cause some kids not to eat the food.
She said schools need to find a balance between healthy meals and food students will eat.
"It's not nutrition until it gets into their bodies," Childs said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at 423-757-6592 or kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com. Follow on Twitter @kendi_and.