School Food: Price and Stigma

Approximately half of all school meals are served to poverty or near-poverty students (higher in urban areas), and participation in meal programs is extremely price sensitive for all students. Universal meal programs in some districts provide free meals regardless of family income and relieve the stigma of being identified as coming from a low-income family. Universal meals cut paperwork as much as 80 percent, which offsets some of the additional costs. Yet in spite of the 1998 pilot for universal breakfasts, in the early 2000s there was little indication that Congress would make any universal meal a permanent part of the subsidy. Some schools have experimented with ways to reduce or eliminate stigma by using a number of noncash charge systems—such as swipe cards—to keep price structures anonymous.