Bipartisan bill from Fitzpatrick, Bacon ensures kinship care kids receive free school meals

U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Don Bacon (R-NE) recently unveiled a bipartisan bill that would expand free school meals programs for some 400,000 children living in kinship care, meaning they reside with their grandparents or in other arrangements.

“Food insecurity poses a serious risk to a child’s health and development and the opioid epidemic has only exacerbated the issue,” Rep. Fitzpatrick said on Sept. 13. “No child should have to wonder when their next meal will come.” 

Currently, children in kinship care are not categorically eligible for free school meals. That would change under the Schools Preventing Hunger in At-Risk Kids (SPARK) Act, H.R. 5177, which Rep. Fitzpatrick, Rep. Bacon, and nine other original cosponsors introduced on Sept. 3 with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA).   

“I am proud to join my bipartisan colleagues to support this critical legislation that will expand free school meals to at-risk children in kinship care,” said Rep. Fitzpatrick. 

If enacted, H.R. 5177 would build upon the work of the comprehensive Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, which former President Barack Obama signed into law in December 2010 and which automatically qualified all foster children for free school meal programs.  

“As a foster-to-adopt parent and co-chair of the Congressional Foster Youth Caucus, I know the SPARK Act will help children in kinship care obtain the nutrition they need in order to perform better at school, stay physically active, and live a healthier lifestyle,” Rep. Bacon said. “Congress has the ability to help these at-risk children and prevent hunger through school meal programs that give automatic eligibility to all students, despite their upbringing or living situation.”

H.R. 5177 is under consideration in the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee.