On the Menu 2.28.2025

HB 12 – School Food for All Alaskan Kids (AFPC Supports)

Read our policy brief here 

Introduced on January 22 by Rep. Dibert (Fairbanks), HB 12 is referred to the House Education and then Finance committees. Thanks to Representative Edgmon, Burke, and Galvin for signing on to HB12 as co-sponsors. 

HB 12 was heard for the first time in House Education on Monday, February 24. Rep. Dibert’s staff Mattie Hull and Sarah Snowberger provided a bill overview, giving background information on the benefits of school meals provided to all children. You can read the sponsor statement and additional documents on the bill here. There was invited testimony from several people. Clarissa Hayes, Deputy Director of Child Nutrition Programs and Policy at Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), began and provided a national perspective on the needs and benefits to increasing access to school breakfast and lunch. She noted eight states have free school meals for all kids, and other states are working in that direction.

Rep. Elam asked about the $28M fiscal note and how many students would this bill cover. There was some back and forth between staff about the estimates of the number of children who would be served. They then went back to invited testimony. 

Trevor Storrs, President and CEO of the Alaska Children’s Trust (ACT), provided invited testimony with strong support for the bill. Heather Heineken, Director of Finance & Support Services from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED), provided the answer to Rep. Elam’s earlier question about how many students are estimated to be impacted by this bill. She noted that it was 100,253 students; Rep. Elam asked if the fiscal note was a per-student calculation or if it took into account economies of scale, freight costs, or anything else. Heineken said it was an estimated cost based on student counts and data from the previous year. Rep. Elam asked how much we currently allocate for school meal programs in Alaska. Heineken noted that the state doesn’t provide any funds for meals for students; all costs are covered by the USDA NSLP (National School Lunch Program). Rep. Himschoot clarified that there is a USDA School Breakfast Program (SBP) that covers breakfast. She also asked to clarify that the number of students doesn’t cover homeschooled students. Heineken noted that some districts don’t participate in the USDA meal programs and that the estimates don’t include those districts (of which there are nine districts not currently participating). Rep. Himschoot followed up with additional considerations about the estimated costs. The fiscal note number reflects the actual deficit from the districts that currently enroll in the USDA school meal programs. Rep. Himschoot asked about the bill language directing DEED to maximize federal funding, and if there was more funding available. Heineken said that there could be additional districts joining, but they already maximize funding for districts that do participate. 

Rep. Story asked about the income eligibility guidelines for the current free and reduced meals program. DEED will get back to the committee with that information. Rep. Story asked about the reimbursement amount that districts currently receive for breakfast and lunch, and also how much are districts paying for school meals right now out of their general funds. Rep. Elam also asked how much a meal per student is in urban versus remote areas. More information will come back to the committee. 

Rep. Eischeid also said that he was very interested in more clarification on the numbers. Rep. Underwood asked about food waste, potential donations and ways to reduce waste. Hull shared that he had talked with a school district where unused food was donated to the senior program. Rep. Himschoot asked about the burden on school districts for administering this program, specifically around who pays for a meal. Heineken answered that many schools have 100% free and reduced meals based on a percentage of families meeting the qualifications (CEP) and that the Department would get more information for the committee. Rep. Himschoot asked for clarification about unpaid school debt. 

Rep. Schwanke asked how to functionally best serve the children. It’s a complex issue with a lot of considerations. One concern is as a fiscal conservative – question of if this is really needed in this way. She asked what federal grants cover school food, including Migrant Ed, and that if districts are creative they might not need this as much. She asked how this would impact schools that don’t have full kitchens or kitchen staff. She talked about the good things of volunteering and donations of game meat and other local efforts, and not wanting to negatively impact that kind of good thing. 

Snowberger said the bill was not intended to interfere with donations or volunteers in schools. She also said that schools do get federal grants helping their meals programs. She would like to get the information to the committee on all of the grants available. Rep. Schwanke followed up saying that’s a really important part of school meals that she does not want to damage. She asked what are all the possible ways to bolster the good things happening in our districts instead of creating an overly broad free program that may not help – how can we best focus our funds? 

Rep. Elam asked if this would require meal service to districts who don’t participate in the USDA school meal programs? Rep. Story followed up and asked if correspondence students would be included, and if they would be involved. 

Rep. Eischeid asked for more information about the benefits, specifically the educational benefits when kids aren’t hungry, and any additional literature on this. 

You can watch the hearing here.