Makes school lunches free for all children and clears existing school meal debt for families.
The Kids Need Lunch Act would make school lunches free for all children in schools that participate in the program, ending income-based eligibility. It would also pay off existing school meal debt owed by families to schools and stop schools from collecting any future lunch debt. This means parents would no longer have to pay for school lunches, and schools would get reimbursed for past unpaid meals.
Today, eligibility for free or reduced-price school lunches is based on household income, and schools can collect debt for unpaid lunch charges from parents. After this bill, all children in participating schools would get free lunches, and schools would be reimbursed for existing delinquent meal debt. Schools would also be prohibited from collecting any new or existing debt for unpaid lunch charges, starting immediately if the bill becomes law.
HR 7542 · 119th Congress · February 12, 2026 · AI Summary by gemini-2.5-flash · 3/10
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