The Arkansas Senate has approved a bill to set aside revenue from medical marijuana taxes to pay for free breakfast for students.
The legislation, SB 59, would supplement federal free and reduced-price meal funds with money from a state Food Insecurity Fund, paid for by cannabis taxes as well as private grants and money from the state’s general fund.
Bill sponsor Sen. Jonathan Dismang (R), noted ahead of the floor vote that “25 percent of our kids wake up food insecure every single day when they go to school.”
“Sometimes that meal that they get at school is the only nutritious meal they get in a day,” he said. “These kids have no way to feed themselves, and if they have parents that aren’t willing to sign the cards or send them with money, those districts are required to feed them, and they build up debt. But this would allow every kid in the state of Arkansas to be entitled to have a free breakfast.”
The legislation would provide meals to students regardless of whether or not they qualify for free or reduced-cost food under federal law.
“We would ask the first of federal dollars that are available be utilized, and anything else that’s remaining,” Dismang said. “The state of Arkansas would pick up utilizing the medical marijuana dollars to help make that district whole for providing that breakfast.”
The measure passed by a vote of 26-2 days after it was unanimously approved by the Senate Education Committee. It now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.
The Senate’s passage of SB 59 follows an endorsement of the proposal last month from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), who previewed the bill in her State of the State address. Notably, Sanders, a former press secretary under the first Trump administration, has historically resisted cannabis policy reform.
“We will also use those funds to make school breakfast in Arkansas completely free for any student that chooses to participate,” she said in the speech, saying the use of medical marijuana funds would make the program “sustainable for years to come.”
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