An Inside Look at 88th Texas Legislature
With the 88th Texas Legislature well underway, Texans can expect changes in several Public Policy – including bills that affect food access. That’s why Mia Medina, Keep Austin Fed Board Member and No Kid Hungry Texas Program Manager, is continuing to advocate for federal policy changes that improve health and education on the federal level in her second Texas Legislature appearance.
In this Q&A, Medina gives her insight on some key food-access initiatives to be aware of and how you can stay informed on pressing issues.
What are some key food-access related bills to look out for and the effects they might have?
At No Kid Hungry Texas, we’re asking the Texas legislature to appropriate funding that would cover the cost of reduced priced meals, allowing them to be provided at no-cost to every student who needs it. The Texas Department of Agriculture administers the state’s school lunch and breakfast program which serves approximately three million kids every school year.
Under federal rules, students with a family income between 130% and 185% of the federal poverty level are eligible for meals at a reduced price of up to $0.40 for breakfast and lunch. While reduced price meals seem modest in cost, they remain a barrier for many working families as many Texans are just one emergency away from facing poverty in any given month.
Eliminating the reduced-price meal category at schools could allow nearly 233,000 students to be newly eligible for school meals at no cost. You can find more information on our advocacy efforts at nokidhungry.org/Texas
What resources can people use to stay up-to-date on food access related bills?
There are so many food access related bills and appropriation requests this year that are working to improve different aspects of the food system. I recommend checking the Feeding Texas and Every Texan website for more information on their legislative priorities around increasing funding for produce rescue, indexing the SNAP vehicle asset test to inflation (SB 273 and HB 1287), improving college completion rates by maintaining access to SNAP for low income students (HB 1501 and SB 557) and more!
Of course, if you know the bill number you’re trying to track you can create a personal list of bills to track and set up an email alert through the Legislature’s website.
What call to action would you suggest for people to take to show their support for these bills?
Contact your representative and let them know your thoughts on these bills and issues! They want to hear from you, and they want to know how these bills would affect their constituents. If you’re unsure who represents you, you can find out by using this website.
Where do you stand on some of those food-related bills/issues?
I believe that food is a human right and families are struggling now more than ever to make ends meet – especially now that pandemic related support such as free school meals for all and increased SNAP benefits has disappeared. Any policy efforts that work to positively support our food system from grown to distribution and consumption is something that all Texans should get behind.