A bipartisan proposal could help feed young bodies and minds. Republican State Senator Louis W. Blessing III and Democratic State Senator Kent Smith worked together across the aisle to propose S.B. 109, a law that would provide free breakfast and lunch to all students in public and chartered nonpublic schools throughout the state of Ohio. Given that one in five children in Ohio go hungry according to Feeding America, this law could provide a positive impact statewide.
If passed, Ohio will become the ninth state to implement a free school meal program alongside California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont. As a side benefit, this movement would also encourage children to attend and stay in school.
“It’s a public good—the benefit will accrue to families across the state,” Blessing told News 5 Cleveland. “Just thinking about it philosophically, if children have issues with hunger, parents have trouble feeding them, they’re going to want to go to school, if for no other reason than for that meal.”
“Kids only make up 22% of Ohio’s population, but they are 100% of our future,” Smith said in a statement. “By providing basic existence needs to Ohio kids, we are investing in our future workforce.”
This comes after a statewide poll revealed overwhelming support for a free student breakfast and lunch program. Smith and Blessing are pushing for the bill’s inclusion in the state’s new two-year operating budget set to be cemented in July. This comes after federal government cuts compromised federally funded free school meal programs in the state, impacting 280,000 students.
On the federal level, Congress has become less productive and are passing less laws year after year, decade after decade since 1987. A 2023 Bipartisan Policy Center poll found that Americans are optimistic whenever a bipartisan law is passed, however they lack confidence that the law would be enforced in a bipartisan manner. This shows that most Americans have little faith in their federal representatives to effectively protect and fight for their collective interests.
Yet, in recent years, there have been several stories of dynamically opposed state representatives coming together to better serve their constituents in not just Ohio, but in Michigan, Washington, and Colorado among others. It appears that by their very nature, these representatives are more attuned to their constituents’ needs given that they tend to work, talk to, and observe their fellow state citizens compared to their D.C. counterparts. Being neighbors with the people they serve tends to open their eyes to the genuine problems being faced by their community.
In any case, should this bill pass, it would be yet another indicator that good can be done if we connect with one another to resolve a problem and come up with a solution to benefit the whole.
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