BUFFALO — For the first time in Wyoming history, the Legislature’s Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration has continued to meet even after the state has passed a recalibrated school funding model.
The committee’s main priorities during the legislative interim are to address areas of the school funding model that weren’t addressed in the school finance recalibration bill passed earlier this year, and one of the major issues is how food service should be addressed in the funding model.
Food service has never been included in the school funding model despite most districts pulling thousands to even millions of dollars from their general fund budgets to support their meal programs.
Johnson County School District No. 1 Superintendent Charles Auzqui said that the district typically uses general fund money to support one-third of its food service budget each year, about $300,000, with the rest of the food service budget coming from federal funding, student fees and donations.
The district served nearly 105,000 meals during the 2025-26 school year (18,646 breakfasts and 86,322 lunches). Based on that figure, the district must subsidize each meal with about $2.85.
Auzqui said that while ensuring students are fed supports better learning outcomes, using money from the general fund to support the food service program takes away from other line items in the district’s budget. That’s why he believes it’s necessary for the state to provide some level of funding to support food service programs in public schools.
“Our No. 1 priority is taking care of kids when they are with us, and feeding kids is one of the most critical things we do,” Auzqui said.
One reason state lawmakers have opposed funding additional school nutrition programs is that districts already have the option to participate in the National School Lunch Program. Through the federal program, participating schools receive cash reimbursements for each qualifying meal they serve. In return, they must meet federal nutrition standards and provide free or reduced-price meals to students who qualify based on household income. While participation is voluntary and not every Wyoming school district enrolls, most do, including Johnson County School District No. 1.
However, the district and many others throughout the state are not reimbursed enough through the federal program, combined with the amount they charge per meal, to cover the cost to provide meals to students.
That isn’t uncommon, as 63.1% of school nutrition directors surveyed as part of the School Nutrition Association’s 2025-26 school year report said the national school breakfast program’s reimbursement rates were not sufficient to cover the cost of producing a breakfast, and 69.6% said they were not sufficient to cover the costs of producing a lunch.
The committee’s consideration of adding food service into the school funding model is assumed to be motivated, in large part, by a ruling handed down by Judge Peter Froelicher in 2025 in a lawsuit brought by the Wyoming Education Association.
Though the state has appealed the ruling, Froelicher ruled in favor of the WEA that the state has unconstitutionally underfunded public education in the state. In particular, Froelicher agreed with the WEA that the state must fund schools’ food service programs.
Auzqui said that he is “feeling optimistic” that food service will be added to the school funding model ahead of the 2027-28 school year.
One way the state could support food service programs would be to fund food service worker salaries and benefits, he said. For Johnson County School District No. 1, that’s projected to cost about $588,770 in the 2026-27 school year.
Auzqui said, however, that food service isn’t the only line item in district budgets around the state that isn’t included in the funding model.
For example, districts are statutorily required to run annual audits and maintain liability and building insurance, costing Johnson County School District No. 1 upward of $280,000 annually, yet they receive no funding for those line items in the school funding model.
Districts are still able to afford those necessary items because the school funding model is given in a block grant, but based on changes to the funding model this year, the model has lost a lot of its previous flexibility. Without budgetary flexibility, Auzqui said, the state will need to provide funding specifically for all of the required areas of school operations that districts are required to meet.
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