Without free school meals for all, many fear lunch debt will return ‘with a vengeance’

For the last two years, any public school student in the U.S. could eat lunch for free. This year, that’s over.

That means Shani Hall, who oversees student nutrition services for Florida’s Hillsborough County schools, will be poring over her list of local residents and community groups that have offered financial help. When students accumulated meal debt in the past, those are the people who’ve wiped out balances.