119th (2025–2027)
S. 4518
The Universal School Meals Program Act of 2026 establishes a nationwide program providing free breakfast and lunch to all students in participating schools, with the federal government setting reimbursement rates of $3.28 per breakfast and matching rates for lunches, adjusted annually for inflation. The bill expands free meal benefits to children in afterschool care programs and to incarcerated juveniles in eligible detention facilities, while prohibiting schools from collecting meal debt or shaming students unable to pay. The legislation eliminates restrictions on what schools can charge families who do not qualify for free meals and replaces the previous poverty measurement system with a new "economically disadvantaged" identification method using federal survey templates or direct certification data, which schools must implement within 180 days. The bill also expands eligible meal providers to include private organizations offering nonresidential child care outside school hours. Federal guidance on reimbursement procedures for meals provided to incarcerated juveniles must be established within one year of enactment, though for-profit detention centers are excluded from the program.