May 2025

The strength of the social safety net has always been a top personal concern of mine, which has less to do with political leanings and more to do with values developed as I grew up.

I am part of the Baby Boomer generation (1946-1964) which, according to those who study generational characteristics, have as group hallmarks an emphasis on diversity, collective action for societal change, social justice, equal rights, civil rights and gender equity. Of course, that’s a pretty broad brush but accurate none the less.

My values were in part shaped by parents who were part of the Silent Generation which is credited with the creation of the first society safety nets.

I have been fortunate to be paired with a life partner with inclinations similar to my own. We have both been involved in the community for decades, be it schools, drug rehab groups, arts endeavors, and the like. In her case, a heavy involvement in the world of the non-profits, including years in a variety of roles with Gleaners Community Food Bank in the metro Detroit area.

So it logics that we both are a bit disheartened by what we see happening with lawmakers in Washington D.C. and Lansing who seem hell-bent on balancing government budgets on the backs of the food-challenged members of society.

In the case of Gleaners, which serves families in Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, Monroe and Livingston counties, the supplier of food pantries in this part of Michigan estimates that it would cost the organization about $850,000 to replace food because the feds have cancelled $43 million in deliveries of poultry, cheese, eggs and milk. For the folks at Gleaners, it means replacing 1.4 million pounds of food they were scheduled to receive.

Nationwide, an estimated 8,000 food banks, including programs involving 84 tribal governments, will be impacted.

Certainly lawmakers in Congress can look for other budget items that can be reduced in their search for ways to trim spending to support tax breaks for top tier individuals and companies.

What grinds me the most – all of this plays out against what national news agencies have estimated that in the first six weeks of the new administration, Trump’s trips to play golf at his personal courses have run an estimated $18 million in expenses (movement of people, security, vehicles, etc.) underwritten with public taxes. And then there is the proposed military parade on the president’s birthday, estimated to cost $92 million. Total BS.

Beyond the increasing needs of the food banks and the declining federal funding, there’s the issue of the threat to the school breakfast and lunch programs which look like they too will be cut or eliminated as Congress and state lawmakers lock up budgets for the coming year.

Discounted or free meals to income-based qualified families have always been part of the school lunch program. But the COVID-19 pandemic forced national leaders to include school meals, both breakfast and lunch, underwritten with funds from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. President Biden’s administration expanded the program further. And then Michigan, under Governor Gretchen Whitmer, was one of seven states to contribute annual funds – $25 million per year – to provide free meals to all students, regardless of family income.

Then when the federal money for the program ended, Whitmer kept the program going. About $200 million was built into the state education budget for the 2023 – 2024 school year in which 1.4 million public school students are fed. All told, 76.3 million breakfast and 135.6 million lunches were served through the program, which was also underwritten for the 2024-2025 school year.

The rub is that federal regulations for participation in the discounted lunch program are being toughened up and Republican members of the Michigan House of Representatives, at this point in time, have not included the extra money for the next school year.

On the federal level, a couple of things are happening. For starters, under the current school lunch program a district could sample three percent of its families to qualify for the discounted lunches. Under proposed new rules from Washington D.C., verification of income from all households will be required, rather than keeping the sampling method. It is estimated that nationwide 24,000 school districts will likely drop from the program, impacting 12 million students. Further, the feds are looking to cut from the program $12 billion over a 10-year period and will be requiring that a larger percentage of the population in a district will qualify on an income basis. So in Michigan alone, 1,327 schools will be impacted in 338 districts, which means over 503,000 students will be affected..

The Michigan approach to providing free breakfast and lunch to all students, regardless of family income, has already proven to increase attendance and it eliminates the problem with older programs where students who could not afford lunch or qualified for discount meals were stigmatized at school. Imagine, if you can, if that were your child.

Some studies have shown that providing food – and a better quality at that – has a direct correlation on student test scores.

The attitude in the nation’s capital? U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has been quoted as labeling the food efforts as “nonessential,” which tells you everything you need to know.

Certainly an argument can be made that some families can no doubt afford to pay full boat for school breakfast and lunch. But an equally strong argument can be made that there are probably one in every four families for which the meals provided at school could be the only food these students might receive on any given day. So you decide if the program should continue.

Our household feels that making sure kids have food so that they are prepared physically and mentally to learn should be a priority. It’s one part of the society safety net that must not be allowed to disappear.

David Hohendorf

Publisher

DavidHohendorf@DowntownPublications.com