by Molly Manning
Jenn McLaughlin has been teaching in Virginia for almost two decades. She said one of the first things she learned about being in the classroom was that you’re not in a vacuum; students will not come to school ready and able to learn if they have other things going on at home, including hunger.
Food insecurity is a pervasive issue in the state, and while many local organizations work to address it through food pantries, community fridges and more, legislators are working to enact laws establishing concrete measures to protect the most vulnerable Virginians from hunger.
“How can we expect kids to be on their best behavior and absorb the knowledge that we’re throwing at them if they don’t have full stomachs?” McLaughlin asked.
One in eight Virginia residents is food insecure — meaning they lack consistent access to nutritional food, and one in seven children in the state is food insecure, per the Federation of Virginia Food Banks.
One school McLaughlin worked at previously offered free breakfast, lunch and dinner to anyone under 18-years-old in the town, because the need was so great.
“Honestly, when they started that program, my students became better students and much better behaved students,” McLaughlin said. “Because they knew where their next meal was coming from. They knew they weren’t going to go hungry that day.”
Several bills have been introduced during the 2026 General Assembly session regarding food access and hunger.
Senate Bill 4 introduced by Sen. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, would require every public elementary and secondary school to participate in the National School Lunch Program and the federal School Breakfast Program.
This would make breakfast available to any public K-12 student who requests it at no cost and would require the Department of Education to reimburse the schools for every breakfast served to a student, with a maximum of one per student per school day.
Roem said she has introduced legislation to provide free meals to students, some similar to SB4, every year she’s been a member of the General Assembly. In 2020, as a member of the House, she passed legislation requiring schools with a high percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals to participate in the federal Community Eligibility Provision, which provides free breakfast and lunch to all students.
“CEP has been wildly popular, and because of that, in the last six years, we’ve now enrolled hundreds of thousands more Virginia students in universal free breakfast and lunch,” Roem said in an interview with Virginia Scope. “However, what happens is that not every school and not every single division as a whole are eligible for CEP.”
When schools are not qualified for CEP, they end semesters with thousands of dollars in school meal debt, Roem said.
“School meal debt should not exist when the government requires your kids to go to school,” Roem said. “Your kids should get fed, period.”
During the current General Assembly session, Roem said she received a low-number bill for the first time in her legislative career, meaning it was considered high-priority.
Republicans who had previously opposed universal free school breakfast voted in favor of it when it advanced out of the Senate Education and Health Committe last month.
Roem attributes the newfound bipartisan support to former Gov. Glenn Youngkin leaving office.
“Republicans are now looking at ‘what’s the Republican standard nationwide?’” Roem said. “They see that this is becoming very popular on both sides of the aisle.”
Roem said she campaigned on “fixing roads and feeding kids,” and universal free school breakfast is a popular idea within the electorate as it saves parents money and streamlines school administrative processes.
“When you ask people ‘what do you want to see your tax dollars spent on?’ Feeding hungry kids,” Roem said. “It’s just a no-brainer.”
SB 4 will be taken up by the Senate Finance Committee.
In the House, Elizabeth Bennett Parker, D-Alexandria, introduced House Bill 96 with the same language as Roem’s Senate bill.
“This matters for Virginia students because school breakfast is directly tied to student success,” Bennett Parker said during a press conference Monday. “Schools that offer breakfast for all see higher academic achievement, better test scores, fewer discipline issues, and fewer absences.”