School Meal Debt Erased for Waterford, Montville Students

WATERFORD, CT — Students in Waterford and Montville will start the upcoming school year with a clean slate when it comes to lunch debt.

State Rep. Nick Gauthier announced that the recently passed state budget includes $66,000 to eliminate accumulated school meal debt in both districts. The funding comes after local and state efforts to highlight the burden lunch debt places on families and school systems.

“As I have made clear while running for office, this debt burden placed on our schoolchildren is a product of policy choices,” said Gauthier.

Gauthier used the announcement to renew calls for a statewide universal school meals program, which provided free meals to all students during the COVID-19 pandemic but ended afterward. He called the removal of the program “a moral, educational, and a policy failure” and noted that it had reduced stigma and improved classroom performance.

Rep. Nick Menapace of Montville also voiced support for the broader program: “Addressing this debt is the right thing to do for our kids. I join Representative Gauthier in hoping that, moving forward, we in the legislature can address this issue statewide so that no student is ever burdened by lunch debt.”

Rep. Kevin Ryan added that universal school meals “reduce food insecurity and financial strain on families.”

Gauthier thanked local officials for helping to secure the funding and praised school nutrition staff “for serving the nutritional needs of our students in Waterford and Montville schools each and every day.”