“We were told the food can’t be given away. Breaks my heart, too,” she said.

Calls to the school district, Health Department and hunger advocates never provided a clear answer as to why a better option couldn’t be found.

Part of that experience led to an education about U.S. food waste: About 40% of food in America is thrown away or left to spoil.

Another lesson was about childhood hunger. I knew kids in that school who were in chaotic and dysfunctional home environments or had parents struggling to pay their bills, including for food. Some of the parents trying to stretch a dollar didn’t meet the threshold for free- or reduced-meals but still had to portion out food.

Teachers spent their own money to stock their classrooms with snacks. Some teachers spearheaded efforts to get donations to send students home with food.

Oklahoma ranks No. 6 in the percentage of households that go hungry at some point during a year at 14.3%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Among Oklahoma children and youth, it’s higher at about 1 in 4 kids going hungry.

Several nonprofits in the state are dedicated to ending hunger and have made strides. But the nonprofit world cannot fix this complex community problem alone. Government plays a role, especially when it comes to ensuring the well-being of children and providing schools with the resources needed to best educate students.

Hunger advocates have shown how state and local investments can leverage the federal free- and reduced-meal program to benefit all public school children. Tulsa Rep. John Waldron wrote an op-ed in November arguing that if the state contributed $20 million to $30 million toward the school meal program, every public school student would be fed.

Considering that Oklahoma leaders boast of historic high savings accounts of up to $5 billion, that cost seems like a doable amount. I cannot think of a better use of my taxes than making sure any child who arrives at school hungry has access to a meal.

Providing food to all public school students eliminates the stigma on kids qualifying for assistance and prevents indignities like denying food — or giving no choice other than a peanut butter sandwich — because of meal debt. Teachers won’t have to buy snacks for hungry kids.

More importantly, kids will be able to focus in classrooms. They will get the nutrition needed to develop physically and academically. This is the one area of child well-being that can — and ought to — be met.

Recently, Tulsa Public Schools announced that all its students will have free breakfasts and lunches available. Since the 2016-17 school year, TPS elementary students have been able to eat at no cost. Now 15,000 middle- and high-school students and their parents don’t have to worry about paying for school meals.

About 80% of TPS students qualify for meal assistance, but the district was recently approved to take advantage of a USDA provision to expand eligibility to all students.

TPS isn’t even close to being the first district to do this. Last year, at least 83 Oklahoma public school districts offered free meals to all their students, and another 15 (including TPS) offered free meals at some of their sites.

An increasing number of districts, including Sand Springs, Allen-Bowden, Wagoner, Kellyville and Bartlesville, are announcing free meals to all students for the upcoming year. I’m hoping more districts can find ways to create a universal school meal program.

Child hunger has been a priority for the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy. It states that a 2019 report found that Oklahoma ranks fourth nationally for students qualifying for federal school meal assistance at about 60% of all public school students, or nearly 399,000 children. But not all were receiving discounts for reasons such as parents not filling out the eligibility forms.

Several bills to address the issue were proposed in the last legislative session but never made it into law.

House Bill 1376 from Rep. Jeff Boatman, R-Tulsa, would have changed the income threshold for qualifying for reduced school meals to capture more financially distressed households. The bill passed the House 91-7 but stalled in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

House Bill 2727 from Rep. Annie Menz, D-Norman, and House Bill 1885 from Waldron would have eliminated the income requirement entirely. Neither got out of the House Appropriations and Budget Education Subcommittee.

It’s not surprising that those bills didn’t go anywhere. Lawmakers, particularly more conservative elected officials, don’t like expanding social programs, even when faced with data.

Gov. Kevin Stitt turned away funds for a federal child feeding program this past summer, leaving it to several Indigenous nations to offer the program within their reservations. That didn’t cover all the need, and a struggling family from Elk City was featured on the front page of the Washington Post.

Without help from the state, it’s up to the local districts to figure it out. Thankfully, more local communities are stepping up to bridge the hunger gaps.

This won’t solve the food waste problem. This won’t solve hunger completely. But universal school meals will reach more children experiencing hunger and provide schools with another tool to help students.

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