Lynelle Johnson, director of child nutrition and food distribution for the Department of Public Instruction, speaks to Legislative Management during a hearing on a free school meals ballot measure on June 11, 2026. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) — North Dakota lawmakers this week adopted an official cost estimate for a free school meals ballot measure that voters will consider in November.
The Department of Public Instruction estimates the cost to implement the free school meals ballot measure would range between $124.3 million to $134.3 million every two years.
The cost range for providing free breakfast and lunch to public K-12 students is slightly lower than estimates presented to lawmakers in December. Officials revised the estimate after talking with nine other states that established similar programs, Lynelle Johnson, director of child nutrition and food distribution for the Department of Public Instruction, told lawmakers.
Legislative Management, a committee with members from the House and Senate, on Thursday voted to use the new estimate as the fiscal estimate for Measure 3 that will appear on the general election ballot. The cost analysis will be found next to the ballot measure language on the Secretary of State’s website.
Johnson said the new estimate is based on participation in federally subsidized free and reduced-cost school meal programs in other states that offer free school meals. She said more schools are expected to use other reimbursement programs, like SNAP, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and Medicaid, for income verification to automatically qualify for the federal school meals program.
“Over the past two years we’ve used cautious assumptions because we really weren’t sure how many families would still fill out applications,” Johnson said.
An application to receive free or reduced school meals requires families to provide household income data to establish how much of the meal cost would be reimbursed through the federal or state government.
In North Dakota, about 125,000 students attend schools that participate in the federal school lunch program, Johnson said. She added there are only a few thousand students that attend smaller public schools, private schools, or are homeschooled, that don’t participate in the program.
Johnson said North Dakota could follow Vermont’s model for universal school meals. In that state, schools are required to participate in other reimbursement programs, which automatically enroll students at the federal level for school meals programs. The automatic enrollment could reduce the reliance on annual income verification applications that parents submit to schools, she said.
Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburg, a member of Legislative Management, said she worries that people aren’t going to continue to apply for the free or reduced meals program and the cost of providing the meals will balloon because the state won’t receive as much federal funding.
“I think the general public out there is going to go, ‘Free is free,’ so I fear that we’re going to hit $150 million to $170 million pretty quickly in the next couple of bienniums,” Myrdal said.
Rep. LaurieBeth Hager, D-Fargo, said she realizes the price tag on the program is large, but said feeding about 125,000 students a meal for about 175 days per year is an investment.
The Secretary of State’s Office approved and verified more than 49,000 petition signatures to get Measure 3 on the ballot.
If approved by voters, the free school meals program will take effect for the 2027-28 school year. Private and tribal K-12 schools would be able to opt in to the program.
The measure specifies that the state’s Legacy Fund would be used to pay for the free breakfasts and lunches unless the Legislature identifies other funding.
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