Minnesota senator votes against free school breakfast plan because he doesn’t know anyone in state who goes hungry

Minnesota (U.S.) state senators were debating on Tuesday a bill to provide free school breakfasts and meals. to students, when Republican Steve Drazkowski took the floor Tuesday to lodge a complaint based on the fact that he had yet to meet anyone poor in Minnesota.

As reported by several U.S. media outlets, Drazkowski began by arguing that the cost of the bill should be spent on improving learning in schools. But he quickly went on to question the need for the bill, saying: “I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota who goes hungry.”

“I have yet I have yet to meet a single person in Minnesota who says they don’t have access to enough food. to eat,” Drazkowski repeated in a video that went viral on social media.

What’s more, he made a joke in his intervention, assuring that he did know a hungry person. Himself who had only had an energy bar for breakfast that day. “Well, yes, I, who had only had one energy bar for breakfast of cereal and I’m a little hungry,” the politician mocked.

The project has been approved

The Minnesota Department of Education, which is behind the petition for the free meals bill, puts the figure at. 18% of students who would qualify for free meals. or at a reduced price: “One in six experience food insecurity.”

The media have taken the opportunity to report that. Minnesota food banks had served 5.5 million visits by 2022.a record and an increase of 1.9 million over the previous year, according to Hunger Solutions Minnesota.

Despite all this, the free breakfast and lunch project to all school-age children was approved by the Senate by a vote of 38 to 26.; it will now return to the House and, if passed, will become a reality.