A new fact check found Joe Lombardo’s claims that he vetoed universal free meals for Nevada students because they are “thrown away” to be false. Lombardo flat-out lied about vetoing legislation that would have provided free breakfast and lunch for public school students in an interview with the Nevada Independent saying “I didn’t veto it”. 

Lombardo chose to leave our children hungry when he vetoed AB139 which guaranteed free breakfast and lunch in public schools – then he lied about it. Access to free school meals can make a sizable impact on students’ educational attainment, specifically improving student health and attendance, reducing disciplinary infractions, and increasing test scores among marginalized groups of students.

“Joe Lombardo might call himself the ‘education governor,’ but he isn’t fooling anyone,” said Nevada State Democratic Party Spokesperson, Tai Sims. “With the stroke of a pen he had the opportunity to provide guaranteed access to nutritious meals for Nevada children, delivering better learning and health outcomes for them, but instead he chose partisan politics over our students, then had the audacity to lie about it.”

Read more about how Lombardo’s vetoes impact students below: 

The Nevada Independent: Indy Explains: What’s happening with universal free meals for Nevada students?

Key points: 

• As the last day of the school year approaches, Nevada schools are sounding the alarm as they prepare for the end of a universal free school meals program that was available for students throughout the pandemic. 

• During the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided waivers that made school meals free for all students, regardless of their family’s income, at Nevada schools that were a part of the programs. Those federal waivers expired after the 2021-22 school year, but state lawmakers extended the program, allocating a total of approximately $104 million in federal COVID relief funds to continue providing universal free school meals for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. 

• Last school year, an average of 6.5 million school meals were served each month to about 460,000 students, the Nevada Department of Agriculture said in a statement. This includes 206,000 students who wouldn’t have access to a free meal without the COVID relief funding.  

• “It’s been fantastic,” said Elizabeth Martinez, the district’s director of nutrition services. “For the past four years, we haven’t had parents calling us freaking out because they make 50 cents over the income guidelines to get assistance to get their kids food.” 

• But last year, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed a bill, AB319, sponsored by Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui (D-Las Vegas) that would have appropriated $43 million to the state Department of Agriculture to continue providing universal free breakfast and lunch to Nevada students. Lombardo said in his veto message, “providing universal-free lunch will increase the amount of food purchased and, unfortunately, ultimately thrown away,” and claimed that studies have shown that as much as 73 percent of food provided through school lunch programs ends up in the trash. 

• Lombardo made a similar statement at a March IndyTalks event, and suggested that that the waste was in part to kids in “well-to-do neighborhoods” receiving meals. A recent fact check by The Nevada Independent found Lombardo’s claim to be false because it suggests a data point from one study on vegetable waste reflects overall waste rates. 

• “In other words, we do not have a large number of affluent families who would otherwise be paying for school lunch, choosing to take the free school lunch and discard 70 percent of it,” said Adam Searcy, the district’s chief operating officer, in a statement. 

• Martinez is bracing for this shift. She said she expects to see a drop off in meals served across the district of about 7,000 students — even among students who qualify for free or reduced-priced meals — based on what’s happened in other states that have ended their pandemic-era universal free school meals program. About half of the district’s students attend the three schools — Al Seeliger Elementary, Eagle Valley Middle and Carson High — that will be affected by the change.  

• “Eating school lunch is seen as making a public statement sometimes of I’m poor, or I need assistance, and stigma is a really big problem,” she said.  

• While the Carson City School District doesn’t track food waste, Martinez said she doesn’t think it was increased during COVID. She compared Lombardo’s reasoning for his veto to a parent taking food away from one child because their other child didn’t finish their meal. 

• “Why is that an excuse?” she asked. “Why is that a reason to take funding for free meals away from students that need them?”

• This means that next school year, free or reduced-priced meals will only be available to students who are eligible based on their household’s income and apply for the assistance.