Universal Free School Meals and Juvenile Crimes: Evidence from Community Eligibility Provision

• In Event: Perspectives on the Effects of Universal School Meal Programs on Students and Their Communities

Abstract

School nutrition programs are well-known for reducing food insecurity and improving students’ health outcomes. Beyond these direct benefits, a growing body of literature suggests that free school meal programs have additional spillover effects, such as improved academic performance and better disciplinary outcomes among students. I contribute to this body of literature by examining the impact of universal free school meals, through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), on juvenile criminal behavior.

Despite the availability of free and reduced-price meals under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP), many low-income students do not participate due to application burdens and the stigma associated withreceiving free meals. CEP addresses these barriers by eliminating individual applications and providing universal free meals to all students in participating schools or districts. Schools can opt into CEP if at least 40% of students (reduced to 25% in2024) are categorically eligible for free meals. However, despite its nationwide rollout in 2015, many schools opted out, leading to variation in CEP adoption across time and regions.

To identify the effects of CEP on juvenile crime, I use county-level crime data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) database for 2010-2019, which provides age-specific crime counts for each law enforcement agency within a county. CEP participation data was obtained from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), while school-level data was collected from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

I estimate a dynamic difference-in-differences model that exploits the variation in CEP adoption timing across counties. Since crime data are aggregated at the county level, I assign treatment status to a county if at least one school in that county adopted CEP in a given year from 2015 onward. My estimation strategy compares changes in crime rates within the group of counties with a minimum average of 40 percent of students who were categorically eligible for free meals.The preliminary results indicate that CEP adoption reduces overall juvenile crime by approximately 7.7 percent, primarily driven by a decline in property crime (about 8.3%), with no significant effect on violent crime. Among teens aged 15 to 18, who are more likely to engage in criminal behavior, the reductions are even greater, with overall crime and property crime declining by 8.3% and 10.5%, respectively. These findings suggest that universal school meal programs can reduce crime rates among school-aged children, particularly among teens who are most vulnerable to engaging in criminal activity.

Author

• Rabinson Pahiju, The University of Memphis
  Presenting Author