With food insecurity on the rise and changes to programs like SNAP, some Connecticut lawmakers are making a renewed push to pass legislation during the 2026 session that would guarantee universal meals for students across the state, regardless of their school district.
Currently, students have access to a mix of free, reduced price and paid meals, depending on household income, with some districts opting to provide free meals to all children.
Here’s what you need to know about universal school meals in Connecticut and why it may come up in next year’s legislative session.
Who is eligible for free school meals in Connecticut?
There are three ways student meals work in Connecticut schools.
First, there are students who get free meals — meaning breakfast and lunch. A family of four qualifies if they make less than $41,795 before taxes for the 2025-26 school year.
There are also students whose families pay a reduced fee for school meals. Again for a family of four, these families must make less than $59,478 before taxes.
And there are students whose families pay full price because their income exceeds the limits for free or reduced price meals. Lunch for these students typically costs between $3 and $4.50 depending on the school district.
But some districts offer free meals to all children. How does that work?
Under the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP, if more than 25% of a school’s population qualifies for free meals, then the school can choose to serve all students free breakfast and lunch. The school can then be reimbursed with federal funds, at a rate of 1.6. That means, if 40% of students at the school qualify for free meals, the school will be reimbursed for 1.6 times that amount, or 64%. The school will then have to find funds within its budget for the other 36% of the student population’s meals. Some districts have a high enough percentage of students who qualify that they do not have to contribute any additional funds.
There are also a handful of districts that provide universal breakfast, but not lunch.
How many Connecticut districts offer free meals to students?
Currently, 63 districts participate, but at 12 of those districts the program is only available at some of the schools. That’s out of a total of 202 school districts in the state.
My district used to offer universal meals but doesn’t anymore. Why?
In 2023, the FDA changed the CEP provision so that schools with 25% of students qualifying for free meals could opt-in to provide universal meals. Previously, the threshold was set at 40%. Some Connecticut school districts that fell within that 25% to 40% range decided to opt-in, but later determined the program was too expensive to continue and chose to opt back out.
What kind of food do students receive as part of universal meals in Connecticut?
There is no universal menu that school districts must follow in Connecticut, so different districts contract with different vendors. But all student lunches must include five components: a dairy, protein, starch, vegetable and fruit.
Why do lawmakers and advocates want to provide universal meals in Connecticut, even in wealthy districts?
Food insecurity is hitting Connecticut residents hard. Disruptions to programs like SNAP caused by the government shutdown and populations being shut out of the program altogether have renewed calls for the state to do what it can to ensure that children are fed. The One Big Beautiful Bill act excludes certain groups from SNAP benefits, including refugees and asylum seekers from access to SNAP benefits as well as some young adults, veterans and people experiencing homelessness.
But even before those restrictions were put in place, lawmakers in Connecticut have advocated for universal school meals for a number of reasons.
While some school districts in Connecticut may have a low percentage of students who quality for free meals, lawmakers and advocates say that making such meals universal has a number of benefits. First, when meals are available at no cost, participation in these programs go up.
“It changes the culture of the school meal program,” said Marlene Schwartz, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Health at the University of Connecticut. “It doesn’t become just a program seen as something low-income kids participate in, it becomes something everybody does,” reducing stigma and ensuring that kids who are hungry are fed. Children with full bellies, advocates say, are able to focus on learning.
Making such a program universal would also cut out the cost and time of the paperwork associated with parsing what meals are available to which students. That would allow directors of food programs to focus their time and energy on getting the best quality food to their students. Feeding more kids would also give smaller districts greater purchasing power to make bulk deals with vendors.
In Connecticut, the high cost of living also means that there are many families who do not currently qualify for free meals, but who are struggling with the cost of groceries and would greatly benefit, according to Schwartz.
“The gap between the amount you can make to no longer qualify and amount of money you need to take care of a family of four in Connecticut is many thousands of dollars, and in that gap are a lot of people who need help and aren’t getting it,” she said. Because low- income families qualify for free lunch, Schwartz said that most people assume that all kids who need free meals get them. “No, they don’t!” she said. “They don’t!”
How would Connecticut fund universal meals?
That remains to be seen, but one of the proposals on the table is a tax on sugary drinks. Schwartz, for one, is in favor of this idea.
“I thought that was the most brilliant idea I had ever heard,” she said. “A public health home run.” Because drinks like soda are linked with negative health outcomes, cities across the U.S. have used such taxes as a method to fight obesity and diabetes while simultaneously raising money for quality of life improvements for their citizens.
Philadelphia, for example, taxes such drinks at 1.5 cents per ounce and has used those funds to pay for a free preschool program, among other initiatives.
Laura Tillman is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2025 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).