State legislators visit BHS in bid to strengthen healthy meals bill coalition | Baraboo News Republic

In a roundtable discussion with Baraboo School District staff, a student and a local farmer Wednesday, state legislators advocated for others to join their coalition aimed at creating change in how quality food is supplied to students.

Rep. Kristina Shelton, D-Green Bay, said she introduced Assembly Bill 805 after measures meant to be temporary in the face of COVID-19 showed that supplying food to people for free was possible.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020, we saw something happen that we had been told for years couldn’t happen, which was, we can just feed kids,” Shelton said, sitting at a table with others at Baraboo High School. “We can give food to hungry kids and hungry community members because we know that their survival depends on it. So we saw this incredible system come together, but we also saw the gaps that existed in what that system is going to look like going forward.”

Shelton, Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, and Rep. Dave Considine, D-Baraboo, introduced the bill along with other state Assembly members on Jan. 4. It calls for any school district which participates in the National School Lunch Program and the federal School Breakfast Program and meets the federal nutritional requirements to be reimbursed for the total cost of all meals it serves. In other words, free meals for all students.

There is a more than 60-member coalition in favor of this measure, Hong said. It includes farmers and producers, churches, school districts, including rural, suburban and urban ones, restaurateurs and nonprofit organizations.

“Feeding kids shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” Hong said. “The coalition itself really speaks to how this issue is not just about the school meals in the schools.”

The bill won’t be passed this session, Hong said, because legislators likely won’t vote on any measures for the remainder of the legislative session due to the election year. That will not stop the sponsors from introducing the bill every year until they are no longer able or it passes, she said.

“For us, this bill is personal, but also it makes the most economic sense,” Hong said.

Part of the measure that lawmakers have coined the Healthy School Meals for All Act, or Healthy Meals, Healthy Schools, would focus on keeping control locally.

Considine said he wants to see more of a connection between area farmers or producers and the school districts.

“I don’t think there’s any problem getting schools on board and wanting to do it,” Considine said. “If we were funding them adequately, they’d do it right now.”

Hong and Shelton echoed the sentiment, noting that school districts “know what’s best” for students and that by allocating funding to them, staff members can better ensure students are successful.

BHS Principal Glenn Bildsten said one of the things he wished to see in the district is serving dinner for students at the school. He also said student athletes could use food after practices.

Junior Sylvie Stevens runs track. When Bildsten brought up the idea, she expressed excitement. She said she knows runners just like her are hungry after practice and would benefit from that type of offering.

The aim is not only to bolster student achievement, but to shorten the supply chain between provider and consumer, which supports the local economy, Hong said.

“Investing in our children, investing in our kids and their health, is the biggest investment we can make for local economy, state economy; how we maximize our dollars is really the defense we have when people constantly ask, ‘Well, how do you pay for it?’” Hong said. “The money is there, it is the political will that is not.”

While the bill calls for the state to pay for meals, Shelton said details over the funding are “wonky” because of federal waivers still in place. Part of the reason for the legislation, she said, was due to the federal programs set to end in June. When she saw other states deciding to take action to continue free meals, she felt Wisconsin needed to do so as well.

“It’s around $100 million every year to cover that gap, which seems like a big number to folks, but what I say is two things: No. 1, we have $3.8 billion in our state coffers right now,” Shelton said. “So when people tell me we can’t do big things, I’m like, ‘You are wrong. We can. We’re choosing not to.’ But we also know it’s worth the investment.”

Shelton said schools would not only benefit, but so would farmers and growers that have become more endangered in the state.

Jane Stevens, who has operated an organic farm in North Freedom since 1989, advocated for eating seasonally to ensure a steady supply of produce throughout the school year. She said she agreed with the vision of food to help students learn better and graduate smarter because they were not distracted by empty stomachs.

“Sadly, the three months the kids are off is the most productive,” Stevens said. “I just think it’s really important, how close it is to the earth too, because with highly processed foods you lose so much of the nutrients.”

Shelton said despite the bill not getting much traction currently, it still has the potential to be “multifaceted” and is “exciting” to those looking to update food systems throughout the state.

“This bill is not going to fix everything, but it is the North Star that sets our values; that we commit to feeding all kids and with that kickoff, we use that to think creatively about how we get into the meat of the issue,” Shelton said. “We don’t have all the ideas, nor should we. We want to work with those of you in the system to help us work in the lane we can.”