# What the Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 2025 Actually Does

This bill makes two major changes to how school meals work: it eliminates the reduced-price meal option entirely, and it significantly expands who qualifies for free meals. Right now, schools offer three tiers of meals—free for the poorest families, reduced price for families making a bit more, and full price for everyone else. This bill wipes out the middle tier completely and pushes many more families into the free category.

The first big change is getting rid of reduced-price breakfasts and lunches. Currently, families earning between about 130% and 185% of the poverty line can buy meals at a reduced price (usually just a few dollars). Under this bill, those families would either qualify for completely free meals or pay full price—there's no in-between anymore. For a family of four, the current reduced-price threshold is roughly $35,000 to $50,000 in annual income. The bill raises the free meal threshold to 224% of poverty, which means a family of four earning up to about $61,000 would now get free meals instead of paying reduced prices.

The bill also makes it easier for schools to automatically sign up eligible kids for free meals without requiring families to fill out applications. Schools would be able to directly check with Medicaid agencies to identify children who qualify, then automatically enroll them. This removes a major barrier that prevents eligible families from getting meals they're entitled to—many families simply don't apply even when they qualify. Additionally, the bill allows schools to go back and reclaim reimbursement for meals they already served to kids who later become certified as eligible, going back to the start of the school year.

The practical effect is that significantly more children would eat free at school, and fewer families would have to pay anything. Schools would need federal funding to cover these expanded costs, and the bill increases reimbursement rates through something called the Community Eligibility Program, which helps schools in high-poverty areas provide universal free meals.

Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 2025

Gottheimer, Josh

Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 2025This bill increases student access to free school lunches and breakfasts under the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program of the Department of Agriculture (USDA).Specifically, the bill expands program eligibility to include students in households with income at or below 224% of the federal poverty level. (Currently, students in households&nbsp;with income at or below 130% are eligible.) The bill also eliminates the reduced price school lunch and breakfast programs and prohibits USDA from providing reimbursements for reduced price programs.States may use Medicaid&nbsp;participation data to directly certify students for free school meals. (Direct certification allows schools to approve meals&nbsp;without the need for a separate application for children who receive assistance under other programs.) Under current law, states may apply to participate in&nbsp;a USDA demonstration project to directly certify children for free and reduced price meals based on household income data acquired through Medicaid.Further, the bill increases the number of free meals a school in a high-poverty area may be reimbursed for at the free-meal rate under the Community Eligibility Provision. (This provision allows eligible schools, groups of schools, and school districts to offer free meals at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting separate applications.) Specifically, the bill increases from 1.6% to 2.5% the reimbursement multiplier, which is used to calculate how many meals USDA will reimburse the school for at the free meal rate.