Does the Reduced-Price School Lunch Program Count as a Public Charge?
This article explains that free or reduced-price school meals under the federal Food and Nutrition Service do not make an immigrant a public charge, even under the proposed 2018 rule, which has since been rescinded.
Public elementary through high schools in the United States offer lunch. Students whose family income is at or below 130% of the poverty line can receive free lunch; students with family income between 130% and 185% of the poverty line can receive reduced-price lunch, costing no more than forty cents per meal. Some students worry: does this reduced-price lunch count as a public charge?
School lunch is a federal program called the National School Lunch Program, administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), as USDA explains [source]:
Nutrition Benefits and Public Charge: Effect on Immigration Status. Receiving nutrition assistance through FNS does not make an immigrant a "public charge." That is, an immigrant will not be deported, denied entry to the country, or denied permanent status because he or she receives food stamps, WIC benefits, free and reduced-price school lunches, or other nutrition assistance from FNS.
Even under the new public benefits rule proposed by the Trump administration in 2018, reduced-price lunch was likewise not treated as a public charge; moreover, that proposed rule has been withdrawn by the Biden administration: {https://gonglue.us/2494}.
[add-series id=511][note]Recent immigration and visa policy changes [/note]
