‘All Kids Deserve Nutrition’: Michigan Private Schools Fight for Free Meals

Most students returning to school this month once again have the promise of free breakfast and lunch every day, but thousands of other children will be left out.

More than 4,200 students attending nonpublic schools around the state would be eligible for Michigan’s free school meals program if lawmakers and the governor saw fit to extend the program beyond public schools only.

The estimated cost to include a majority of would-be eligible nonpublic schools in the program is $1.6 million – a drop in the bucket compared to the $200 million approved by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to continue the program another year for public schools.

“It’s a relatively simple issue: You either think all kids are deserving of getting nutrition and being able to go to school ready to learn or you only think some kids are,” said Brian Broderick, executive director of the Michigan Association of Non-public Schools (MANS), which provided those estimates.

Michigan’s program, which Whitmer has hoped to make permanent, serves the 1.4 million public school students in the state. Her office has previously said it’ll help students focus on learning and save families $850 a year.

The continuation of that program, along with free Pre-K for most and free community college, were highlights of the state’s $23.4 billion education budget touted by Democrats when it was passed this summer.

Related:Gov. Whitmer signs $23.4B education budget including free community college, pre-K

Officials with Whitmer’s office and the House Democratic Caucus haven’t provided clear answers on why nonpublic schools aren’t included in the now second-year of the state program.

They say the state is restricted from using School Aid Fund dollars on nonpublic schools, but the state is allowed to use General Fund dollars on those schools, like they do with public safety initiatives, providing water filters and more.

For Broderick, whose organization represents roughly 80% of the 115,000 nonpublic students across the state, the answers from state leadership are “just kind of an excuse.”

“The state has allowed nonpublic schools to participate in school safety funding matters,” said Broderick. “There’s an idea out there that all kids, no matter where they go to school, deserve to be in safe learning environments. Again, nothing to do with education, what’s being taught.

“Why doesn’t the same hold true that all kids are well-fed so that they can learn better?”

The disparity between the number of nonpublic students in the state and those that would be eligible for the state’s program is because schools have to provide not only lunch but breakfast as well to be eligible for the program.

Broderick said not all schools are able to staff and fund breakfast services, and some would-be eligible schools already provide federally-funded meals because more than 25% of the student body come from households receiving federal assistance.

Michigan’s free school meals program stems from the federal government in 2022 ending its pandemic program that provided free meals for all students, both public and private.

Related:As federal free lunch program for all students ends, Michigan could spend $171M to keep it going

A number of states around the U.S. like Michigan saw the benefit of continuing free access to nutritious free meals – regardless of income – and adopted their own initiatives.

In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential presumptive nominee, adopted a free meals program for all students, public and nonpublic.

Lisa Burnis is the principal at St. Francis de Sales Catholic School in Manistique, overseeing 160 students grades Pre-K through eighth. Her school is one of those that would be eligible for the state program.

Burnis said there is a marked difference in behavior following the end of the federal free meal program, when students were assured two nutritious meals a day.

“We’re seeing more behavior issues and more lethargy; just not getting the proper nutrition it seems,” she said. “And parents do a good job, they try their best, but everybody knows how it goes. When the economy isn’t doing real well, and our economy is pretty depressed up here, they go home and it’s TV dinner or drive-thru – fast stuff.”

There’s a misconception that those who attend nonpublic schools come from wealthy families. The reality, Broderick said, is that nonpublic schools, like public schools, often mirror the income patterns of the community they’re in.

Even so, the state’s free meal program isn’t about providing meals to impoverished students, many of whom already receive free or reduced lunches. Instead, it’s about ensuring nutritious meals for all students.

“The state’s policy is ‘We’re going to feed all kids at public schools regardless of what their income is,’” Broderick said. “If you’re in a high income community, let’s say Grosse Pointe or Kentwood or Northville, all those kids in a public school have access or eligibility for the free breakfast and lunch program, and no one asks them what their income is.

“But somehow there’s this perception out there that all the nonpublic school kids are well off and that’s simply not true. And, two, you’re treating kids differently based on how their school is covered.”

St. Francis de Sales administrative assistant Janet Knaffla oversees student lunch accounts. She recalled how tough it was to tell parents that free meals for their children was ending with the federal program.

“When it was free, it was so beneficial to our families,” Knaffla said. “It relieved not only that burden of having to pay that lunch price but also just knowing that they’re going to get a square meal, because it is very tough right now and it was tough right after the pandemic, when we had to go back to charging parents for lunch.

“That was a huge hurdle for me to talk to parents and explain to them, ‘Yeah, I understand the public school is free and we are not, but there’s nothing I can do about it.’ They were very angry.”

Jill Annable, president and CEO at West Catholic High School in Grand Rapids, said the number of children taking breakfast and lunch dramatically increased when it was offered for free thanks to the federal government’s pandemic program.

She has 1,500 students across the high school and six elementaries in the West Michigan area who were cut off when the federal program ended but would’ve been eligible for the state’s free meals program.

“If the intent of the legislation is that kids and nutrition come first, then where a child goes to school shouldn’t make an impact on that,” Annable said.