Though the bill has been continued for consideration next year, SB4 recognizes childhood nutrition as a vital element for academic success, guest columnist Zubin Mehta writes.
Zubin Mehta | Virginia Mercury
One of the great things about the concept of a commonwealth is that the very name is a reminder that we are all in this together. Nowhere is this truth more deeply seen and felt than in the smiling sea of students bearing backpacks and bright eyes and the endless efforts of hardworking educators in our primary education system.
This year, Sen. Danica Roem, D-Manassas, sponsored Senate Bill 4, which aimed to offer free breakfast to every student in Virginia’s public education system and represents another way we could all support a common good.
Though the bill has been continued for consideration next year, SB4 recognizes childhood nutrition as a vital element for academic success.
Not only is the link between childhood nutrition and early childhood development a well-established fact and supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, but we now know that programs like these improve absenteeism rates in Virginia public schools.
Childhood nutrition is one of those areas where we get one chance to get it right. While for many it is astonishing that breakfast isn’t the first meal of the day, for too many families, it is unaffordable and children often bear the cost. “Hangry” may not be an actual word, but it is a condition that makes learning impossible.
The good news is that at least ten other states have already adopted free breakfast programs, with Nebraska, Washington, South Carolina, and Tennessee considering similar legislation and nine states offering free meals outright. Virginia could be next.
Unfortunately, both SB 4 and its companion in the House of Delegates have been punted to the next session, and they faced opposition from lawmakers more concerned about the fiscal impact of free breakfasts rather than the developmental impacts of failing to provide nutrition to developing minds.
We should remember two things. The fiscal impact of childhood nutrition is far cheaper than the social and moral costs of not providing and meeting basic needs. Moreover, supporting children is pro-family and enhances the common good, because where we invest our public resources is the surest and most clear indicator of priorities.
Bills such as these are a reminder that no matter how passionately we may disagree on the means, we can surprise ourselves and make progress by agreeing on the ends.
In this case, the goal is as simple and wholesome as a free breakfast for every child in our public education system.
SB4 would be an investment in our younger Virginians so that our future leaders have the basic nutrition needed to become good citizens and great scholars. Certainly, it would not resolve all the problems of the state, country or world, but it could most certainly solve one small challenge that science, sound policy and common sense support.
Although we missed the chance to enact it this year, I hope lawmakers will make it a reality next year.