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My mother -- a doctor of medicine who had 11 children -- made my brothers and sisters the lunches we carried each day to school in brown paper bags. The standard menu was a sandwich and some kind of fruit -- an apple, an orange, a banana or, maybe, a peach or a pear.

There were 72 students enrolled in my grade level at St. Raphael's School in San Rafael, California. We were divided into two classes of 36 -- and every student in both those classes brought their own lunch to school each day.

We stored them in the cloakroom in the morning and retrieved them at lunchtime. Then after lunch we headed outside for recess -- where the boys in my class often played whiffle ball.

No government -- federal, state or local -- paid a penny for the lunches those students ate at that parochial school.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who calls himself a "democratic socialist," and Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minn.) are now promoting a much different vision of America than one in which parents prepare -- and pay for -- their own children's lunches.

They want the government to pay for and provide not just lunch but also breakfast and dinner to every public school student in this country -- and not just during the school year but year-round.

Sanders and Omar last month reintroduced their Universal School Meals Program Act, which they first introduced in 2019. Nineteen senators and 85 members of the House of Representatives joined them in cosponsoring it -- and every single one was a Democrat.

The bill proposes a form of food socialism that would be administered by public schools across the country.

"The Universal School Meals Program would provide free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack to every student -- without demanding they prove they are poor enough to deserve help getting three meals a day," says a summary of the bill posted by Sanders.

"It is time to build off of the success of the universal meals structures in place and eliminate the stigma some children fear of being labeled 'poor' by their classmates once and for all," said this summary.

"Offering universal school meals benefit students and their parents, teachers, and schools," it said.

"The United States is the richest country in the history of the world," Sanders said in a statement about the bill. "Nobody should be going hungry."

"I am proud to partner again with Bernie Sanders to introduce the Universal School Meals Program Act, which would provide free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to students year-round," Omar said in her own statement.

What they are saying is, parents who send their children to government-run schools should not be responsible for feeding their own children. Taxpayers -- including those in coming generations -- should be required to do it.

The last time the federal government ran a surplus -- having collected more in taxes than it spent -- was in fiscal 2001. That was a quarter of a century ago.

In every fiscal year since then, the federal government has run a deficit, and the federal debt has increased. On Oct. 1, 2001, the first day of fiscal 2001, the debt was $5,806,151,389,190.21, according to the Treasury. This June 12, it was $39, 209,984,063,577.76.

That is an almost sixfold increase of $33,403,832,674.387.55.

According to the Census Bureau's estimate, the number of children under 18 in the United States in 2025 was 72,734,000. That means that the $33,403,832,674,387.55 increase in the federal debt this nation has seen since the last fiscal year that we ran a surplus equals approximately $459,260 for each of the children under 18 in this country as of last year.

Given that the federal government is already running a deficit, the money that would be spent to fund the Sanders-Omar three-free-meals-a-day plan (if it actually became law) would need to come from borrowed money -- that would add to the debt.

So, who would pay for such a plan? Our kids, grandkids and great-grandkids.

In fiscal 2025, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government paid $970 billion in net interest on the federal debt. By fiscal 2035, the CBO projects net interest will rise to $2.019 trillion -- without the Sander-Omar free meals program. If that program were enacted, it would need to be funded by increasing the debt -- that future taxpayers would need to pay the interest on.

In recent decades, the United States has seen a decline in the percentage of children growing up in traditional two-parent families. In 1960, according to the Census Bureau, there were 63,727,000 children under 18 in this country, and 55,877,000 (or 87.7%) of them were in two-parent households. In 2025, by contrast, there were 72,734,000 children under 18, and 51,202,000 (or just 70.4%) of them were in two-parent households.

As the percentage of children being raised in traditional families declined, the number of Americans on federal food stamps increased. In 1960, when 87.7% of American children were in two-parent households, there was no federal food stamp program. In 1964, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Food Stamp Act. As of fiscal 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there were 41,127,000 people participating in the food stamp program.

If Sanders and Omar had their way, every American child who attends a government school in the coming years would be dependent on the government -- not their parents -- for food.

And Americans who work and pay taxes would be required to fund it.

To find out more about Terence P. Jeffrey and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

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