This March 1, 2010, file photo shows an Arby's restaurant sign in Cutler Bay, Fla. Arby's is buying casual dining chain Buffalo Wild Wings in a deal worth about $2.4 billion. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

According to a report from TimesNews, the fast food chain Arby’s has committed a $16,892 grant towards feeding Tennessee school children in Hawkins County after Republicans blocked a free school meal bill.

According to Salon’s Joy Saha, the Arby’s Foundation “has committed $500,000 to support approximately 200 communities in which Arby’s has a restaurant.”

“Hawkins County Schools are humbled with the selection by the foundation to help with this need, which otherwise would have to be paid from district budget funds,” Hawkins County Director of Schools Matt Hixson said at a Hawkins County Board of Election meeting earlier this month. “The Arby’s Foundation has stepped up to provide a need in an area that others never think about, and we greatly appreciate their generosity.”

In January 2023, House Bill 255, a bill to provide free breakfast and lunch to public school children in the state, was introduced to the state legislature by state Rep. Kevin Raper (R-Cleveland). On March 12, the bill died in the General Subcommittee of Senate Education Administration when five Republican nay votes were enough to stop it from advancing. None of the sitting members spoke on the bill aside from Raper, who cited his 30 years of experience as a teacher where he witnessed the educational impact of hungry children.

“I’ve witnessed firsthand, hungry children do not always come from economic status,” Raper said while introducing his bill to the committee on March 5. “I can only think of two areas where we mandate attendance. One in schools. The other is when we have incarcerated individuals in jails. And right now, we’re feeding them. It’s almost as if we’re prioritizing our prisoners above our future, which is our kids.”

Below is the result of the subcommittee’s role call vote on HB 255.

Ayes: Rep. Kirk Haston (R-Lobelville), Rep. Bryan Richey (R-Maryville), Rep. Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville)

Nays: Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood), Rep. Christ Hurt (R-Halls) Rep. William Slater (R-Gallatin), Rep. Robert Stevens (R-Smyma), Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis)

An identical bill, Senate Bill 208, was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Adam Lowe (R-Calhoun) and has been assigned to a similar committee in the Senate. At the time, Lowe said the goal of the bill was to give some of the state’s surplus back to communities and families.

“Low-income families tend to get relief through school lunches, working and middle class not so much,” Lowe told Knoxville’s WBIR last month. “We require those children to go to schools. Most of them go to public school and then we require lunch bills on top of that, so it really was just a means to get some relief back to families.”

According to Gov. Bill Lee’s (R) 2024-2025 fiscal year budget publication, Tennessee boasted a $1,526,231,000 surplus as of June 30, 2023. While introducing HB 0255, Raper estimated the yearly cost for the free school meal program at “a quarter of a billion dollars.”

Last November, when discussing K-12 schools using federal funds to feed low-income students and students with disabilities through nutrition programs, state Rep. John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge) doubted the effectiveness of the proposal. Ragan suggested that the program would be  “wasteful” unless the government tracked the academic performances of children after its implementation. A video of Ragan’s comments was posted by the progressive news outlet The Tennessee Holler and garnered over 900 reposts on X.

“If we are tying ourselves to the federal government by accepting their money to do this thing, then it would have seemed to me that we as a state should be looking for the improvements that this money is purportedly going to make,” Ragan said about the student nutrition programs. “Otherwise, we’re just throwing money at something and being potentially wasteful.”