 Hello and welcome. This is the Education Committee in the Vermont House of Representatives on Wednesday, March 16. We're continuing our work on S 100 and that relating to Universal School breakfast and creation of the task force on Universal School lunch. And I am delighted to welcome two students from as it's Westford. And for the record, will you introduce yourselves and give us your testimony. For the record, I'm Grayson Lula. I can get started with my testimony. You're pretty. You can't hear you that well. Is it possible to get a little closer to the mic? Yeah, can you, can you hear me better now? That's a little better. Yeah. Hi, my name is Emma Reneau. I'm a freshman at Essex High School here to ask committee to pass S 100 and include both breakfast and lunch at no cost to all Vermont students, starting with the 2022 to 23 school year and paid for from the Education Fund. Watching fellow classmates in the lunch room this year has been a completely different experience than past years. The line for school meals are always full, sometimes even out the doors tables are full of nutritious food and everyone has a plate. For me having school lunch free means stress free mornings, not having to worry about packing food, confidence walking in the cafeteria and nutrition giving me energy to get through difficult classes. But I'm not the only one that is this way. Essex High School freshman Jaila Palermo reported the following. Not everyone can afford school meals. And if you forget money, then you can't have food. Some students home situations don't allow for the money and resources needed to provide sufficient nutrition. So it is important that school is a safe and reliable place to get that. For free meals, the school lunch stigma had students feeling shy and judged about getting hot lunch. It dictated whether or not I fueled my body for the day and forgetting lunch money was embarrassing. But for many, embarrassment wasn't the biggest issue. Instead, it was the fear and reality of being hungry all day. Without food, we have no energy to learn and think so our best work isn't possible. Another student, Elia LaRoche, gives us her opinion on why it's important to keep meals without charge. It makes nutrition accessible to everyone. You don't have the stress of packing food or buying hot lunches. Although the anxiety of getting school food is a big part of why we want free meals, the equality piece of the situation is also incredibly important. As you all know, not every student has the resources for buying food. It isn't equitable for us to give certain families under a certain category of financial aid, but not others that need help too. Not every family that isn't able to provide their children nutritious meals are part of that category. And so, again, I ask the committee to pass S100 and include both breakfast and lunch at no cost to all Vermont students. Starting with the 2022-23 school year and paid for from the Education Fund. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And welcome. Grace. Hi again. I am Grace. You're still coming in kind of soft. Is there a way that we can... Full volume here. Full volume here. So, yeah. Is this a bit better? That's a little better, yeah. Hi. My name is Grace Simula and I'm a ninth grader at Essex High School. Thank you for allowing me to be here to speak today. As a student, I'm asking you to pass S100 and keep school lunches and breakfasts free in Vermont. Universal school meals benefit everyone of all statuses in class. Having free lunches lifts the stress about packing lunch and the anxiety about having enough money to get food. Before universal meals, every morning I would run around trying to pack lunch for the day and wondering if this would be enough food for me. The need to keep the universal school meals is real. Students are hungry and school meals are a key part in helping them. I had guilt from asking my parents if I could have money for the holiday hot lunch so I could feel included with my friends. The idea that we may lose the ability to maintain an inclusive and equitable school nutrition environment is really concerning. Every single student I have talked to is in agreement and supports what we are testifying for. They have all voiced their strong opinions, pleading with us that you keep meals free. Here are some student statements from students at Essex. Here's freshman student Macy Oditz quote, I think we should keep meals free. Having to pay upwards of $10 and all a week is too much for me. Plus, I have more important things to spend money on. I used to not get school lunch because it was just too expensive. Another freshman student, Ada George explained, I think it's important because some people might not be able to pay the expense and it should be free to help students who can't afford it. With that point, I would like to touch on the free and reduced lunch. According to data in 2019 and 2020 of the VT.gov website, the percent of students approved for free and reduced meals is 38.32% statewide. If we keep meals free, the unnecessary stigma around having to get free and reduced lunch will disappear. The lunchroom provides good food to all students, even having meals to accommodate specific diets such as vegetarianism, gluten free, and other food allergies. If I forgot to pack lunch one day, I would panic and I would panic to think that I didn't have enough money in my account. Not having to worry about lunch helps stress parents as well. They might not, they will not have to worry about having enough food in their house and having enough time to pack it for their child. With the rising cost of living and food prices, this would be beneficial to families of all classes. So again, I plead, please keep our lunch and breakfast free for all. Thank you very much. I'm curious about the quality of food. Did you see any change in the quality of food moving? Well, you were in middle school last year. Last couple of years. So me and Grace both went to different middle schools. I went to Essex Middle School and she went to Westford. But so this is our first year in the high school, but the food quality here is amazing. And I know everyone that had in past years that hasn't gotten hot lunch because it isn't their favorite. They really have enjoyed it this year and there's options for everyone. They really have, they have really good food and they change it. They change up the hot lunch option every day. So there's really options for anyone. Does it change anything with the seating the way kids end up seating at tables? So during COVID for a little while, we ate in our classrooms. But this year we've been in the lunch room as we have in past years, no masks while you're eating or anything. Yeah. And there's plenty of room for kids because there's actually four separate lunches. So there's plenty of room for every kid to get a seat. Thank you. Questions represent James. Yeah, thanks so much for being here. It's really great to have you guys. I just wondered a little bit about the logistics, the financial logistics in the cafeteria. So I assume you guys have an account. And when you go to check out, you type in your pin. Or how does it work? Okay, so in past years, we have had that. I know in my school, we had a fingerprint for a couple of years that you would put into a machine that would link to your account. And for other years, we did have like a four digit pin. But this year, because they're free, we haven't had to do any of that. You just get your food and go. Right. Is there any kind of extra out cart options so that if you want to, you know, if you want to buy X, Y or Z extra at any time during the day, you can go in and grab that. Um, there is a free cart, which with school and she required to get a fruit and if students don't want that that goes in the free cart, which I use great for Bentley in case I'm so if I just need a snack. So that's open pretty much all day from breakfast this to the end of the day. So, but breakfast is breakfast ends before our second class ends. So if you want breakfast, you either have to go before classes start, because it's not open during our advisory block, which is after our second one. Thanks. Thank you. Representative Arson. Hi, ladies. A couple questions. What did you, what time did your school day start? We start at eight o'clock in the morning and end at 235. And on Wednesdays we have early release. So it's at 135. This is may sound a little bit unrelated to breakfast, but the research that that teenagers don't function particularly well early in the morning. Neither to some adults. Would it be helpful if the day started a little bit later in regard both in your academics and possibly lunch and follow up question to that are you allowed to eat in your classrooms. Yeah, so we are allowed to eat in our classrooms those some individual teachers when we still had the mask mandate they asked for us to keep our masks on and just take them off for like drinking water. But and I think all classes now you are allowed to eat in class. Honestly, I think it really depends on the student whether they want school to start earlier for me personally. This time works great for me I get up, I have the school breakfast which keeps me going until lunch. Otherwise, I think, I think it's pretty good how we are right now. And I think for a lot of students, especially upperclassmen that work after school, having getting released a little bit earlier than a lot of other schools because of our earlier start time is really helpful. And it makes it easier to be able to work after school and also have after school sports and be able to do all of that extracurricular stuff and have enough time to be able to be teenagers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair and it's kind of a follow up to that my. My son has a tough time he's in he's only six but he has a tough time finishing eating within the timeframe do you feel like you have adequate time to eat during the day is there enough time for them to give you. I think that for a lot of people they want lunch longer, just, you know, to have more time to chill with friends. For me the 25 minutes is adequate. And we do have five minute locks between each class to get to each to your next class. So if you have the last lunch, you've got an extra five minutes, that kind of thing. For me, I know that it's enough time to eat and for a lot of people it's not enough time to socialize so I think that that's the point where it's not enough time. Well, thank you and if you do get a chance my my sister in law as a teacher at six high school. I don't know if you know her but she's a math teacher so say hi to her if you see her. Other questions. You may have heard that the US we have students in the room we get a little excited to speak with you. I don't know if you heard that the US Senate has just passed a bill that would keep us forever in daylight savings time I don't know how that will happen in the house but wondering what your thoughts are just keeping one time and not having not switching. Have any thoughts on that yet. It's, it's definitely a little hard when we have to go forward in time. And it just kind of messes up my whole sleep pattern but I think having it one set time will be better than jumping forward and jumping back and so forth. Just keeping it one stable time really helps with the sleep schedule for me at least. Yeah, I think for me and definitely a lot of other students and a lot of teachers that I've been in class with have been saying that it's hard for them to adjust and that it's just like I don't know all the like the science behind it or why exactly we do it so I don't know if I'm qualified to be saying that we should or shouldn't have it but I think it really does affect a lot of people and I know I've been quite tired this week. Thank you. Good question. Other questions from the committee. So back to lunch. Does pretty much everybody now with it being free and being amazing which never hear anybody describe their hot lunch program has this pretty much everybody get the hot lunch or is there still a significant number of kids who brown bag it. So I know what most of my friends like when I sit at a table a full table full of people. Almost everyone has hot lunch I think that it's more rare to see someone with their own lunch than lunch from the cafeteria. Definitely kind of like oh you still do that cool like it's not a bad thing or anything it's just definitely more people get the school lunch. There is so many options like not just maybe the hot lunch for the day like the special but a lot of people have the sandwiches and the yogurt and the salads that kind of thing so definitely a variety but mostly school food. Yeah and I think the only people that really do hot home lunch is who have like they want to eat a specific amount of like calories or like all like organic because I know a lot of people who only bring food from home. Yeah. So the food cart that you have available can they is that really just more snacks or are there people who sort of eat exclusively from that. It's mostly snacks like apples and oranges and some of the juices because that's normally what people don't eat out of their included meal. Like I didn't actually know that it was a card that you could take things from I really just thought that it was something that people kind of threw fruit in because they don't want to eat it. It's just kind of like. Okay. One of the things that we're hearing is the by having universal meals that more so in the younger grades, the opportunity for education on foods. For example, I heard from a friend in Huntington and her daughter came home and said, I want to have baby Kohlrabi, which the family had never had. So there's opportunities to experience foods that one might not experience or understand the complexity of food and diet. And I'm just, is there any opportunity at the high school level on that. Is there anything happening related to that. Yeah, so they're definitely we don't like learn about it but there is a lot of culturally diverse meals that we've had that I haven't had at home where I don't know and I'm kind of like go home and I'm like hey guys, this is what we had for lunch today. Do you think that we could make it for dinner, or something of that kind of essence. We've definitely had food from like around the world kind of thing. And it's really cool to kind of see how that all works. Yeah, and each hot lunch usually has a vegetarian option, which includes tofu sometimes which is really good to eat. Considering that some people don't eat a lot at their house. And for me I'm vegetarian so it's a great option for me. Because the obviously I can't eat the other one. Thank you representative Austin. Yeah, I'm just wondering what is the cost of lunch at school. How much is it cost if you were going to buy it. So this year, there's no cost in past years I've honestly been too young to ask my parents how much the cost is I just know that there's usually money in my account and if there's not, then you don't get lunch. The lunch ladies would say okay you can you can have this today just make sure you get money in your account. So I actually I don't, I'm not sure. I think in the past, at least at my old school it's been about 250 per hot lunch and then if you needed to get seconds and be another 250. Thank you. We will definitely be getting getting that information. Anything else and committee. Thank you. We very much appreciate your testimony and I'm seeing you in school without masks. So happy about that. Yeah, it's, it's a really, really nice adjustment. You two are one seventh grade when the pandemic. Thank you so much. You have a good rest of the day and we'll keep plugging away at this. Thank you so much for having us really appreciate this opportunity. So just to let people know where we are right now. We were going to do a financial update today. We're not doing that because they need to do a little bit more work. I'm not looking for the numbers that we like. I'm looking for the numbers that are real. And again, some of the estimated also looking at some conversation with folks in ways and means to look at some options to pay for this. They're putting aside some money in the yield bill for meals while we're figuring this out. We are aware that it's one time money. It could be money that we're going to use to hold it for a year while we're setting the other thing up. But at any rate, it's got a long way to go. Going to the Senate will have all the school budgets in by the time we get there. So there's a lot that's unfinished right now. This is one you just have to hold on and know that it will all be sorted out at the end. We actually know what the education spending is going to be. Yes. Yes, I probably should know the answer to this, but I don't. It never works that way. We were already paying for free and reduced. Do you know what that dollar amount is? We are going to get that. That's all coming all that. Yes. And I'm asking them to really do their very best to get it as tight as we can. Thank you. Yeah. This is federal money, right? Federal money. It's USDA federal money. It's not a state that's paying several different provisions. I was just reading about provisions one, two and three that open up those funds. We will be learning more about that as well. Yeah. I hope that we'll be able to find a path. The committee had said it was interesting to look at the idea of it being both meals, breakfast and meals committee has looked at that last week. It wasn't majority, but I mean, it was majority, but it wasn't everybody. So we are looking right now at both breakfast and lunch. And we're going to look at that and see what it's going to cost. And if we can find a source of funding for it. Okay. I'm just chiming in on Terry's question there. We currently pay at the state level for the, for the reduced kids. The state pays the difference to make it free for everyone. So nobody actually pays the reduced rate for month or nobody did. It's not free or not. If you were at the reduced level, then the feds kicked in part and then the state has been making up that difference. What the dollar amount is, I'm not sure, but just programmatically that's how they've been doing it. Thank you. I think it's 40 cents at the state. Representative Brady's been looking at those numbers. Brady and Brown. Yeah. Is there any way to get any testimony? I realize this would be guesswork, but we're going with this is that whether or not the federal's payments will continue after this round. Right now, no. And the option of that is looking more and more remote. It was, it's in the Build Back Better Bill. Right. That's not going anywhere right now. You know, in the basement of the Senate. And even that would run out eventually. It could. Yes. Yeah. Representative James. So just a curiosity, because I know you said this will be worked out, you know, as the session goes on, but is the current thinking that we would plug this with one time money for one year because we don't think we have enough time to possibly, possibly. It depends on what we do. Some things that would be immediate. And fill up the account quickly. Some things are not. So this is one of those things where because of timing and because of crossover, we have to get things moved. So they, the way that means we need to get the yield bill moved over there. And that's often one of the bills that's in the last two days of the session. Frequently. At least it was in the last couple of years. Yeah. We're going to be able to get that figure. Feel easily because we're paying it now. I mean, the federal government's paying it. Yeah. We got to figure out how much they're paying at some point. Yeah. We are definitely getting that. Yeah. We definitely getting that. And in terms of the yield, that's going to be based on what school and ultimately end up spending week on not all school budgets are in. How much is going to go back to taxpayers? How much is going to go to maybe just to cure possibly the demand for meals as this is traveling through? How much of it is going. One of the things that you'll see it's starting this CTE construction program that representative Marca and Kim will were talking about yesterday. That's another, another thing that they're using, which is kind of an interesting concept of buying buildings and having the students. Those are a couple of the things. It's possible that there might be need to be some money related to the transition for waiting. because I haven't really been paying attention to that list. BCBs, I don't know. So all I'm saying is it ain't over. And the yield bill won't be open over until May. Well, we have like how much it will cost to repair the buildings like the facilities bill, but we have that a lot. And I'm just also wondering. October is when that inventory is supposed to be, there's supposed to be an inventory and an assessment. You wouldn't have the inventory yet. Okay. So, yeah. And are we going to hear anybody opposed to this bill? To this bill, I'm sure. Okay. Are there people that you would like to invite in? I, you know, I do wonder about Secretary French. I guess. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. That would be helpful for me to understand the loss of learning and the cost of that and just to try to get a big picture of what's out there in terms of priorities. Yeah. As you know, right now we are just looking at, we're not looking at getting more money for anything. Yes. We're not looking for, we're just looking for money and education right now. The focus right now is if we were to pass meals, not if we would do this and that and the other thing. If we were to pass meals, what would it cost? And can we find a designated source of funding for it? So it's not like, well, we found a designated source of funding for it. Now we're not going to do meals. Instead, we're going to do construction. That would be, that would not probably not something that I'm focused on working on. Yeah. No, I understand that. I just feel like if we, this is just me, if we have that dedicated source of funding, you know, are there other priorities for that funding? Not, I know it doesn't work that way. Everybody has priorities. I know. It's a matter of what priorities you're talking about. Absolutely. Yeah. What else? About a half an hour break. And we are hearing next, I think, we will have, yes, we will have, we're going to coot coot the lease bill that he's very excited about. That's $1.39. He's going to come out. He's going to take the mascot bill. Oh, yes. Let's take the break.