Legislators need to review Minnesota’s Free School Meals -Program

St. Paul, Minn. And Minnesota -Legislators get an update on the state’s Free school meals program Wednesday.

The program last year served millions of meals and went Millions of dollars over the budget to do it.

At Wednesday’s informative consultation, lawmakers want to take a deep dive into how the program works. They are expected to hear from district leaders, farm for school programs, parents and local organizations.

Minnesota’s 870,000 qualified K-12 students were each served around 173 meals, which amounts to 150 million meals combined between breakfast and lunch.

Leaders say the saved parent about $ 1,000 per Child. It cost $ 267 million last year to make it happen – 80 million dollars over the budget.

In addition to any public school district, 167 charter schools and 163 private schools and housing institutions also participated in the program. Only two public schools chose: Prior Lake High School and Byron High School.

The Senate Education Policy Committee meets at 1 p.m. 8:30

Much has changed since last year’s pilot program – there is no longer one DFL Trifecta in Minnesota, and there is a new administration in the White House. This program depends on not only your tax dollars to make it happen, but also a lot of federal funding. There is concern about the Trump administration’s potential cuts or freezes to this government support.