Momentum continues to swell on an effort to expand free school lunches to South Dakota’s poorest students. It now waits for the eyes of House appropriators.
Rep. Kadyn Wittman, a Sioux Falls Democrat, has lobbied for expanding free school lunches in the state long enough that a freshman in high school would now be a senior.
In 2026, the bill advanced out of its home committee with just one dissenting vote.
“I’m overjoyed that today’s committee hearing went so positively with a do-pass recommendation to appropriations on a 13-1 vote," Wittman said. "I think it’s very clear over the last few years the conversation about supporting kids in school through school lunches has become more palatable to folks and we’re seeing that need in our rural communities in addition to our urban communities.”
While Wittman said the work isn’t over in the state’s Republican-controlled legislature, real progress is being made.
“I know one of the big conversations is going to be how do we fund this in perpetuity," Wittman said. "For anyone listening out there I’d like to remind you it’s been a long time, if ever, that we have not had a surplus in our state and this is an extremely small, targeted amount to provide breakfast and lunches to the poorest families in our state.”
That total cost-to-state comes in at roughly $600,000, an amount that has been reached after years of bipartisan negotiation by Wittman and was supported by committee Republicans.
Highlighting this bipartisan effort, the bill was advanced to House Appropriations on a motion by committee members Brookings Republican Rep. Roger DeGroot and seconded by Rapid City Democratic Rep. Nicole Uhre-Balk.
However, the cost was still too much for the Bureau of Finance and Management, which testified against the proposal in the House Education Committee. Grant Judson spoke against the bill.
“This bill would require the Department of Education to pay the 40 cents for lunch and 30 cents for breakfast," Judson said. "This is a federal program, and the cost of meals is already heavily subsidized by federal government and ultimately us as taxpayers.”
The BFM was the only opposition testimony to the bill.