No Free Lunch: School lunch programs in San Antonio are at a crisis point

For nearly eight decades, the National School Lunch Program has helped ensure that every student in the U.S. public education system has access to at least one nutritious meal daily. Now that guarantee looks considerably less certain. Since the end of pandemic-era federal waivers that offered free lunch to 50 million kids nationwide, public school meal programs face rising food costs, staffing shortages, supply chain issues and a growing pile of unpaid debt.