Proposition FF would ensure that students have access to school meals, and they won’t always be salads!

At its simplest, Proposition FF would create the Healthy School Meals for All program to provide access to free meals for all public school students in Colorado, though this post will include lots of detail on this issue to follow. The program would be paid for by limiting state income tax deductions on households with taxable incomes of $300,000 or more – thus increasing income tax revenues from these households – and by using additional federal funding.

The ballot measure would also create a local food purchasing grant available to participating school food authorities, which would help them purchase locally grown or raised food products, plus Prop FF would provide funding to help school food authorities offer pay raises to people employed in preparing or serving school meals.

Prop FF is on the ballot because the Colorado General Assembly approved House Bill 22-1414, which passed both the House and Senate by wide margins though almost all Republicans voted “no.” The ballot measure does not have a sunset date. It’s a statutory measure, not Constitutional, and will only need a simple majority of voters in 2022 to pass.

Why Fund School Meals?

Programs that provide free and/or reduced-price meals for youth in public schools have been common for decades, but these programs typically need funding or subsidies of some sort to defray the costs.

Colorado students might qualify for several meals programs, including the federal National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, or the state’s Breakfast After The Bell Program which offers breakfast for all students in schools where 70% or more students qualify for the National School Lunch Program. Also, thanks to federal pandemic financial aid and a recent extension, all Colorado students had access to meals through the pandemic, but extended funding for universal free meals through the most current federal bill, the Keep Kids Fed Act, was only authorized through the fall of 2022.

According to FF proponent information, about 60,000 youth in Colorado can’t afford school meals, but also don’t qualify for free or reduced-price meals programs because their family income is higher than established thresholds.

The graphic below, from the Colorado Blue Book, gives a basic illustration of thresholds for free or reduced-price meals for students:

 

If Prop FF passes, the program would reimburse school meal providers for offering free school breakfasts and lunches to all public school students, regardless of family income, beginning with the 2023-24 school year.

Extremely simplified, there are many, many reports available suggesting that sub-standard nutrition is not only potentially detrimental to a student’s physical health and development, but also to academic performance.

Readers might not want to settle for one source on the links between nutrition and student performance, but here are a few points from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC):

  • Student participation in the United States Department of Agriculture School Breakfast Program is associated with increased academic grades and standardized test scores, reduced absenteeism, and improved cognitive performance (e.g., memory).
  • Skipping breakfast is associated with decreased cognitive performance (e.g., alertness, attention, memory, processing of complex visual display, problem solving) among students.
  • Lack of adequate consumption of specific foods, such as fruits, vegetables, or dairy products, is associated with lower grades among students.
  • Deficits of specific nutrients (i.e., vitamins A, B6, B12, C, folate, iron, zinc, and calcium) are associated with lower grades and higher rates of absenteeism and tardiness among students.
  • Hunger due to insufficient food intake is associated with lower grades, higher rates of absenteeism, repeating a grade, and an inability to focus among students.

Financial Facts

The bulk of funding for the Healthy Meals program would come from limiting the amount of money that households with over $300,000 in annual taxable income could deduct from their Colorado taxable income to $12,000 for single filers and $16,000 for joint filers.

By limiting the state income tax deductions, the program would take in $50.4 million in budget year 2022-23 (a half-year of revenue collection), $100.7 million in budget year 2023-24, $104.2 million in budget year 2024-25, and increasing amounts in subsequent years. These deduction limitations would affect about five percent of those filing Colorado tax returns.

Under Prop FF, school meal providers would also be required to maximize their use of federal funding. This includes participating in a program that make students receiving Medicaid eligible for federal free meal programs, and participating in the Community Eligibility Provision program, which allows schools with high percentages of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals to receive additional federal meals funding.

Campaign Finance

The committee Healthy School Meals For All Students is supporting Prop FF. As of the Sept. 19 campaign finance report submitted to the Secretary of State, the committee had raised about $825,000 in contributions. The largest contributors include Hunger Free Colorado at about $506,000, Washington D.C. based Center For Science In The Public Interest at $40,000, and Nourish Colorado at $6,000.

I have not yet found organized opposition to Prop FF, as of early October.

Campaign Website: https://www.yesonff.org/

Pro:

  • While the families of many students can afford meals for their children, some are struggling financially, and Prop FF would help make sure all students have adequate nutrition at least during the school day.
  • Having all students well-fed can positively impact student health, physical development, and academic performance. On the flip side, inadequate nutrition can contribute to problems with student health and academic performance.
  • This is in essence a progressive tax policy, since wealthier taxpayers would fund the program while lower-income families would gain a true benefit from the school meals.
  • Using Healthy Meals program funding so meal providers can buy local food products should provide economic benefits for Colorado farmers and ranchers.

Con:

  • Wealthier families are also facing inflation and other cost burdens, and limiting the tax deductions they can currently claim would take real money out of their budgets.
  • Some people believe “meals for all” should not be the responsibility of the government, and those who can afford meals should pay for them.

Richard’s Take

I’ll recommend a YES vote on Prop FF. Fair disclosure – my family qualified for reduced-price meals when I was in public schools. This will date me tremendously, but I used to get paper tickets for 5-cent lunches, and while I won’t comment on whether I loved every meal, they were complete lunches that kept me from getting hungry from noon until in many cases into the late afternoon, often after physically demanding athletic practices or games.

I can understand how some wealthier taxpayers who will be footing the bill might object to being responsible for about $100 million or more in annual aggregate tax revenue. As readers might guess, I’m not in any of the income categories that would lose income tax deductions under Prop FF, so it’s literally no problem for me to vote in favor, but it would represent a measurable expense for those at $300,000 taxable income or more.

To keep this short and simple, I believe Prop FF addresses a worthy public concern by ensuring adequate nutrition for Colorado youth, at least during school hours. It’s in the interest of the students’ health, physical development, and academic performance, plus families like mine (back in the day) could use money they might otherwise need for school meals to pay bills or spend elsewhere in the economy. To me, Prop FF seems morally admirable.