Healthy Schools Meals for All Wisconsin (HSM4A WI)

Kids can't learn when they're hungry.

In Wisconsin, school meals should be as universal as textbooks, gym equipment, and library books - available to every student, every day, at no cost. But right now, the system is failing families. Wisconsin had a projected $3 million in school meal debt in 2023. Families who don't qualify for free or reduced meals can pay upwards of $1200 per child per year just for school breakfast and lunch. And students who can't pay face stigma that no child should carry.

Healthy School Meals for All Wisconsin (HSM4A WI) is working to change that.

HSM4A WI is a statewide coalition of individuals, schools, school districts, community organizations, farmers, and food advocates united around one goal: making free, nutritious school meals available to every Wisconsin K-12 student.

Nine states have already done it, including our neighbors of Minnesota and Michigan. Wisconsin has the resources. What we need now is community action to move this forward, and that takes people like you!

Your donation powers the movement.

Every dollar goes directly toward building the grassroots power needed to make universal free school meals a reality in Wisconsin, including:

• Hosting community education events across Wisconsin
• Growing a statewide network of school meal champions
• Supporting legislative advocacy through future budget and bill cycles

Join the movement.

More than 200 organizations and individuals have formally joined the HSM4A WI Coalition. Over 500 people follow our work through the Coalition listserv. In early 2026, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards voted in support of universal free school meals. Momentum is building.

Your donation, in any amount, helps us keep going.