Star Tribune | February 11, 2014

Gov. Mark Dayton is putting his full political weight behind a new proposal that would pay for hot lunches for students who cannot pay.

Dayton's move comes after a new report showed that many Minnesota school districts deny a hot lunch to students if they can’t pay for the meal.

“No child in Minnesota should be denied a healthy lunch,” said Dayton, who is at Mayo Clinic recuperating from hip surgery. “We cannot expect our students to succeed on an empty stomach. I look forward to working with the legislature to make this issue a priority in the upcoming legislative session.”

A majority of public school districts in this state deny hot lunch — or any lunch at all in some cases — to children who can’t pay for them, according to a Star Tribune story on a new report by Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid. Some schools take the meals from students in the lunch line and dump them in the trash when the computer shows their account is empty. [Read More]