DETROIT — Some Michigan parents and students are finding out on Wednesday that there is no longer such a thing as a free lunch, as the state began a new fiscal year without a K-12 budget.

Michigan's leaders missed their midnight deadline Tuesday to approve a new state budget, but Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said state government operations would continue as normal and state employees should continue to show up for work. At about 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, lawmakers approved a short-term spending plan to fund state government operations for a week.

In the absence of new state aid, some Michigan school districts started charging students for meals Wednesday, while others kept subsidizing all students for breakfasts and lunches out of existing revenues in hopes of receiving continued funding.

Districts including Grosse Ile Township Schools, Birmingham Public Schools and Bloomfield Hills Schools planned to begin charging families who don't qualify for free and reduced lunch on Oct. 1.

"This is a reminder that starting tomorrow students will NOT have the option to get breakfast at school," parents of fourth-graders were told in a Sept. 30 email in the Grosse Ile district. "PLEASE make sure your child has breakfast BEFORE coming to school each day. We will not allow students to bring food into the classroom for breakfast in the morning. Our lunch is at 11am and it can be a long stretch if students do not eat before school.

"Also, beginning tomorrow there will be a charge for student lunch."

Parents who were interested were urged to apply for a free or reduced lunch.

Other districts, such as West Bloomfield School District and Novi Community School District, decided to foot the bill for a limited time to keep the meals flowing and in anticipation of lawmakers reaching a deal that will continue the two-year-old $200 million subsidy.

“We are paying for the meals for the first month and then the board would revisit the issue after October,” Novi district spokesman George Sipple said late Tuesday.

Still other districts told families they would wait and see what the Michigan Legislature decided. As of late Tuesday night, there were districts that had not publicly announced what their plans were.

For parents, even some whose children didn't qualify for free and reduced lunch, the guaranteed free meals were a relief.

Wednesday, Oct. 1, is also count day, where student attendance determines the amount of per-pupil funding each district gets. Since a full-year spending plan has not been approved and details of an announced state budget agreement have not been released, districts do not know how much money they will be receiving per student.

Where costs begin immediately

Districts with fewer economically disadvantaged students who aren't covered by federal funding for universal meals and rely solely on the state are more likely to begin charging families immediately.

Like nearby Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, the Avondale School District and Huron Valley Schools announced through social media that families will be charged.

Other districts kept public posts vague. In August, the Walled Lake Consolidated Schools said in a Facebook post that the district "may" begin charging families on Oct.1, but were still waiting on budget negotiations.

Other districts, while still charging families immediately, are trying to sweeten the deal. Okemos Public Schools, located in Ingham County, will pay $1 toward the price of every charged meal served to students, district spokesperson Shannon Beczkiewicz said.

Districts won't pay for long

The Berkley district said Monday it would continue universal free meals for families until Friday, Oct. 3, if a budget is not approved by then or if the approved budget does not include funding specifically for free breakfast and lunch.

Rochester Community Schools said in an X post it would also provide the meals until Oct. 3.

West Bloomfield is giving families a slightly longer grace period. The district said it would start charging full price for lunches beginning next Monday, Oct. 6, unless the approved budget includes funding specifically for free breakfast and lunch.

"State budget negotiations are ongoing and nearing completion. To ensure continuity for students, the District will cover the cost of breakfast and lunch for all students through Friday, October 3, 2025," the district told families in a message earlier this week.

Novi Community School District Superintendent Ben Mainka previously told The Detroit News his district will fund meals at least through the end of October. It costs the district $350,000 a month for the meals, according to the district. If there is no budget by then, or if the program is cut, district officials will have to revisit the conversation, he said.

Ferndale plans to cover the costs "indefinitely," Superintendent Camille Hibbler told The News, adding that it will cost her district $178,000 to pay for the meals for the rest of the year — for a district with a total budget of only about $2 million. Hibbler said the universal meals had helped contribute to improving test scores.

"Our kids will eat, but we have decided the difficult decision that we’re going to float it," Hibbler said, adding she hopes the district gets reimbursed under a new state budget.

What the impact is

Whitmer and the Democratic-run Senate want to continue the $200 million universal meals program across the state. They are negotiating with the Republican-controlled House, which wants the districts to decide whether they want to use money from their state per-pupil foundation grant to finance breakfasts and lunches — effectively ending the universal program.

Michigan House Republicans have maintained that removing free breakfast and lunch from the state budget wouldn't have a real impact on students.

Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, said the money reserved for the free meals would be wrapped into the overall per-pupil funding. This way, he said, districts would have more flexibility to choose what to spend the money on depending on their needs. And, he said he believed most would choose to spend the money on the meals.

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, and other Senate Democrats that the failure to approve $200 million for universal meal funding is the equivalent of ending the subsidy program.

But if the line item is removed, many school districts won't keep offering the free meals for those who don't qualify for free and reduced lunch.

Even the districts that receive federally funded universal free meals might not be able to guarantee them forever. The federal government shutdown that began Wednesday, if it lasts long enough, will put those meals at risk, said First Focus on Children, a bipartisan advocacy organization.

"National School Lunch and school breakfast programs also have contingency funds, so children’s meals at school won’t be affected right away," the organization said on their website. "But these contingencies won’t last forever, meaning the longer a shutdown lasts, the likelier it becomes that children could go hungry at school."

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—Staff Writer Jennifer Pignolet contributed.

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