School meals are typically served to children for free, at a reduced price, or at full price, depending on their household’s income. In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a waiver allowing schools to provide meals for free to all students regardless of household income in the 2020–21 and 2021–22 school years. This waiver expired on June 30, 2022, leading some advocates and policymakers to express concern that the reintroduction of prices for school meals could make it difficult for some households to meet their other expenses. However, it is unclear whether having to pay for school meals makes it difficult for households to meet their other spending needs. Using new data from the Household Pulse Survey, this economic brief finds that overall, nearly one-third of households with children aged 5–17 that paid for school meals in December 2022 reported that doing so made it difficult for them to pay for other usual expenses. The share reporting the same among households with children aged 5–17 and incomes below 225 percent of the Federal poverty level, and among non-White households with children aged 5–17, was higher than the overall share.
Details
Title
Cost of School Meals and Households’ Difficulty Paying for Expenses: Evidence from the Household Pulse Survey
Record Identifier
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/340805
Language
English
Total Pages
26
Note
This study used publicly available data from the Household Pulse Survey (HPS), which was developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census in conjunction with USDA and other Federal agencies, to provide near real-time information on the experiences of households during the COVID-19 pandemic (U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2022). This economic brief uses recently released data from the Household Pulse Survey (HPS) on the experiences of households with children aged 5–17 to provide timely descriptive statistics that can add context to these discussions. This study focuses on households with children aged 5–17 as this is the population eligible to receive school meals and therefore likely to be affected by the expiration of the free meals waiver. It documents changes in households’ financial hardship and their children’s receipt of school meals over time and presents the share of households that reported having to pay for school meals contributed to their financial hardship after the waiver expired. This study examines differences overall as well as by household income, race, and ethnicity to identify potential disparities across households from different backgrounds.
