Lessons learned from the universal free school meals program

Published August 25, 2022 at 8:24 AM EDT

Students get lunch of homemade pizza and caesar salad at the Albert D. Lawton Intermediate School, in Essex Junction, Vt., Thursday, June 9, 2022.

Thanks to a pandemic program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, over the past two years about 90% of schools were able to serve free meals to all students regardless of income. But that came to an end this summer.

Today on All Sides with Ann Fisher we are taking a look at the lessons learned from the two-year experiment in universal free school meals.

Guests:

Brigette Hires, director of the office of nutrition for the Ohio Department of Education
Joseph Brown, food service director for Columbus City Schools
Krista Ruffini assistant professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University
Emily Gutierrez, research associate in the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute

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