This may seem amazing to people in Tennessee. Here, lawmakers and Gov. Lee are focused on giving $500 million to the Tennessee Titans, privatizing state roads, and offering $1.6 billion in corporate tax giveaways.
While proposals to make school meals free for all kids in Tennessee have been presented – by both Democrats and at least one Republican – they have consistently been shot down.
Specifically, while the state has provided a half billion to the Tennessee Titans for a new stadium and offered $1.6 billion in tax breaks to big corporations (many from out of state), the state still does not provide free school meals to all kids.
For less than one third of the cost of funding corporate tax breaks and paying for a stadium for the privately-owned Titans, Tennessee could feed breakfast and lunch for free to every kid in school every day.
Instead, families in the state are saddled with school lunch debt.
These processors often charge fees to process payments – meaning the price of school meals goes up when using them. Yet, many families have no option – a single vendor typically operates the payment system for a district.
Tennessee continues to allow school lunch debt to persist, despite significant resources that would and could create a free school meal program for all kids.
The state has spent $500 million for a new Titans stadium and $1.6 billion on a corporate tax giveaway.
Those two expenses alone are three times the cost of providing free school meals for all kids in Tennessee public schools.
Policymakers could end all school lunch debt – if they wanted to.
Some districts (like Nashville) have free meals for all kids. Heck, some states (like Minnesota) provide funding for free meals for all kids in school.
But more often than not, school lunch debt is a reality – and punishments for school lunch debt can include withholding diplomas or preventing students from participating in certain school activities.
The alternative is simple: feed all the kids at school for free. No questions asked.
This year, a Republican lawmaker joined the fight – sponsoring a bill similar to one Clemmons has carried in the past. Still, the bill was met with stiff resistance by legislators.
The national trend is toward schools providing meals for free for all kids.
The Tennessee trend is in favor of hundreds of millions of public dollars to fund a stadium for a private business owner and $1.6 billion for a corporate tax break.
Rather than fund school lunches, lawmakers and Gov. Lee seek annually to find new schemes that would use taxpayer money to fund unaccountable private schools.
For the past decade, the state has run budget surpluses in the range of $1-3 billion.
Rather than fund school lunches or boost teacher pay or invest in Medicaid expansion, or end the grocery tax, lawmakers have found a dizzying array of ways to reduce revenue by lowering or eliminating taxes paid by the wealthy or corporations.
The problem is so acute that Tennessee is in real danger of running a significant budget deficit in the 2025 fiscal year.
If Bill Lee ran his HVAC business this way, they’d be filing for bankruptcy.
Sure, school lunch debt represents a massive policy failure. But at least this community is coming together to say kids shouldn’t leave school with debt for meals.
Wilson County residents raised enough money – around $6000 – to cancel the lunch debt for all graduating seniors. Still, the district has some $30,000 in school lunch debt remaining.
Lawmakers have repeatedly rejected the idea of the state paying for free school meals (breakfast and lunch) for all kids. The projected cost: $714 million a year.
Half a billion for the Titans stadium? No problem!
As lawmakers continue maneuvering to secure passage of legislation that would transfer hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to unaccountable private schools, they also continue ignoring a glaring need.
Tennessee policymakers reject efforts focused on free meals for all kids in school
Arby’s is stepping up where Tennessee lawmakers failed. The roast beef sandwich chain is providing a grant to erase school lunch debt in one Tennessee county.
Meanwhile, legislators consistently reject efforts to provide free meals to all kids at school.
Salonreports on the effort by Arby’s to erase student lunch debt:
Hawkins County Schools in Tennessee received a $16,892 grant from the Arby’s Foundation to assist with student lunch debt. The foundation, which centers on combating childhood hunger, has committed $500,000 to support approximately 200 communities in which Arby’s has a restaurant.
Salon notes that Tennessee students carry a staggering amount of school lunch debt:
The issue of outstanding student lunch debt isn’t unique to Hawkins County; according to 2024 statistics from the Education Data Center, on a state-level, Tennessee has $51,610,062 in student lunch debt and about 285,770 food insecure students.
This despite repeated efforts by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide some measure of free school meals to all kids.
One Tennessee school district is taking advantage of a federal reimbursement program to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students starting in January.
Unicoi County Schools will use the Community Eligibility Provision of the USDA’s school meal program to offer meals at no cost to all students with no application required.
The move comes in a state were policymakers have considered and rejected the idea of providing free school meals to all students on multiple occasions.
It also comes in a state that has a massive budget surplus and can afford to invest more in schools – including ensuring all children at school are fed. Instead, it seems Gov. Lee and his allies will spend surplus dollars on creating a new voucher scheme.
The Tennessee Department of Education tweeted that they’d received a waiver from the federal government that will allow school districts to continue school nutrition programs. Here’s more:
We received waivers to continue school nutrition programs during COVID-19 closures. We are thankful federal agencies granted these waivers to ensure our districts can serve students & provide nutritious meals they may not otherwise have received –> https://t.co/KXilaeBREh
