Walters mandate could cost millions in budget, school upgrades to comply

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – More reaction has started pouring in after State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced that all districts across the state must dig into their budget to provide free, healthy lunches to all students.

Across the state, 700,000 students go to public schools. Walters claimed parents are “triple taxed” on school lunches. He has directed districts to cover the cost or face audits and possible accreditation changes.

"I think looking to cut in a place that's already struggling is not the way to do this," said Chris Bernard, president and CEO of Hunger Free Oklahoma.

Right now, lunches are funded by federal and state dollars. Bernard said even with that money, districts would not have enough to cover every child in the state.

"We work with districts where literally the superintendent also mows the lawn of the school,” said Bernard. “There's just not a lot of room in the budget to find the dollars here in the way that the superintendent's framing the issue of like there's this bucket of money in this bucket of money in this bucket of money that pretends like all that money can be spread evenly across districts and it just can't."

School Nutrition Association of Oklahoma sent a letter to Supt. Walters Tuesday that detailed what would need to be done in order for each district to meet his requirement.  

In the letter, it stated schools would need:

• Updated kitchens and equipment for scratch cooking
• Training for food service staff in new preparation techniques
• Reliable access to fresh, local ingredients, which can be limited in rural or under-resourced communities/districts
• Sustainable funding streams to manage higher ingredient and labor costs
• Simplified procurement processes to local foods and distributors for those foods

Which would translate into millions of dollars in upgrades to schools and staff across the state.

"If we go to a farm-to-table restaurant, what is the average bill for a table of two? So thinking of it from that perspective, it's not as feasible and it's not as easy as flipping a switch," said Callie Farish, executive director of School Nutrition Association of Oklahoma.

Farish said they were regulated by the USDA and already met federal food requirements for each meal.

“When you're thinking about charging kids $3 for a meal that includes a fruit, a vegetable, a meat, a whole grain, and a milk, that is a very tight budget to work with,” said Farish. “If we increase the funding, it would make it a lot more feasible.”

The association said it sent the letter to Walters Tuesday evening and has not received a response to their requests.