Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has announced his Universal Free Breakfast Program, which went into effect on October 1, 2022 and will end in June 2023 along with the end of the school year. He is striving to eliminate hunger amongst children of all grades and incomes by allocating $21.5 million to public, private, and charter schools across the Commonwealth.
Wolf detailed his plan during his conference with the Volunteers of America Children’s Center in Allentown, alongside a brief celebration of the increased budget for early education.
Federal funding for the Universal School Meals Program Act has expired along with the Keep Kids Fed Act which expired on September 30, 2022, as the government cut pandemic spending. Combating hunger in schools has become a state-level issue, despite being a national problem.