During the recent legislative session, state lawmakers approved $19.8 million to cover the cost of reduced-price meals for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years through the $338 billion state budget.
“Kids who would have paid a small fee for meals will now receive them at no cost,” said Stacie Sanchez Hare, director of No Kid Hungry Texas. “[School] is where we know so many kids get their meals—it is a guaranteed place for kids to have access to free and nutritional meals.”
What you need to know
Eligibility for free school meals is determined based on a family’s income through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.
Families can contact their school district to fill out an application for free or reduced-price meals at any time during the school year. Students who are deemed eligible for reduced-price meals will receive them at no cost through the 2026-27 school year.
“If you were a reduced-price meal recipient last year, you might be eating for free for both meals this year,” Sanchez Hare told Community Impact. “A reminder to parents: if they did not fill it out, [we’re] asking them to complete that [form], because their child might eat for free this year.”
Over 4,700 campuses across Texas provide free meals to all students under the Community Eligibility Provision, according to Texas Department of Agriculture data. The federal program allows schools in low-income areas to provide free meals regardless of a family’s income.
Statewide, over 1.8 million school breakfasts and 3.3 million school lunches will be served during an average school day this year, the Texas Education Agency estimated. No Kid Hungry Texas, which advocates to end childhood hunger, estimated that 101,000 students who previously paid for reduced-price lunches can now eat at school for free.
How we got here
During the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers set aside $6.6 million to fund free school breakfasts for eligible students in the previous state budget. The legislature maintained that funding and added $13.2 million to cover free school lunches for eligible students when approving the 2026-27 state budget this spring.
The new funding took effect Sept. 1, which is the beginning of the state’s fiscal year.
“The cost of reduced-price meals five days a week, especially for families with multiple kids, can really add up and create a strain for working families,” state Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston, said in a Sept. 3 news release. “I applaud my colleagues for taking action to strengthen this program, supporting the health, education and future of our state.”
More details
In 2023, about 5.3 million Texans—or about 17.6% of the state’s population—faced food insecurity, according to a report released this May by Feeding America, a network of nonprofit food banks. That is the nation’s highest food insecurity rate, the data shows.
In an attempt to reduce food insecurity, No Kid Hungry Texas is also advocating for the state to join the federal Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer, or Summer EBT, program. State lawmakers included $60 million for the program in the current budget, but Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the funding in June.
If Texas joined the program, beginning in 2027, eligible low-income families would have received $120 per child to pay for groceries during the summer, when children are not receiving free meals at school. According to previous Community Impact reporting, the federally-funded Summer EBT program would have brought about $450 million to Texas, with the state spending $60 million on administrative costs.
In a June 22 statement explaining the line-item veto, Abbott cited “significant uncertainty” about federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and similar federal initiatives.
“Once there is more clarity about the long-term fiscal ramifications for creating such a program, the Legislature can reconsider funding this item,” Abbott wrote.
On Sept. 18, over 100 food banks, business groups and other state and local organizations sent a letter to Abbott requesting that he reconsider the state’s participation in the Summer EBT program. Sanchez Hare told Community Impact that legislative approval is not needed for Texas to join the program.
“We need his help, and we need him to hear our voices,” Sanchez Hare said. “With just the flick of a pen, he could change the situation. ... We put a letter in the mail and we look forward to hearing [the governor’s] response.”
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment before press time.
