Kentucky
Case Study - 2022 Legislative Session
K-12 public school districts can allow all 273,000 children in KY to eat breakfast in their classroom during the first 15 minutes of their first period class.
Hunger impact: K-12 public school districts can allow all 273,000 children in KY to eat breakfast in their classroom during the first 15 minutes of their first period class.
Budgetary impact: None
Campaign: Ending “Barriers to Breakfast”
Grantee: Feed Kentucky
Principal contacts: Kate McDonald, No Kid Hungry Kentucky Campaign Director
Lobbyists: Trey Grayson, CivicPoint, a subsidiary of Frost Brown Todd
Communications: Mary Jane Rhodes, RunSwitch PR & Kaylee Price, RunSwitch PR
Bill Number: SB 151, HB 435
Vote Schedule: House vote: 96-0 on 03/24/22, Senate vote: 32-1 on 02/25/22 and Governor’s action: Signed on 03/29/22
Summary: Following an unsuccessful effort to pass legislation in 2021, Solving Hunger partnered with Feeding Kentucky to pass the identical legislation this year. In a relatively short and fast-moving legislative session, Solving Hunger hired very effective lobbyists and communications professionals to overwhelmingly pass a bill in the Republican-dominated legislature and get a signature by a Democratic Governor. Kentucky now permits schools and school districts to allow 273,000 K-12 students to eat breakfast in the first 15 minutes of their 1st period class. The law has no fiscal impact on the Commonwealth.
Background: Feeding Kentucky benefits from the terrific leadership of Kate McDonald. The organization had been successful in getting its bill through the House with a unanimous vote in 2021, but it was unable to get a vote out of the Senate. The explanation was that the Senate ran out of time, but there were also rumblings that the bill was misunderstood. For example, one senator didn’t think that instruction time should be sacrificed for an additional eating period, which was not what the bill proposed. Instead the bill sought to allow more Kentucky children to eat in the first 15 minutes of instruction time. Children in some schools were being afforded this opportunity, but others were encumbered by a statute that was silent on this point. Meanwhile, Kentucky was in the middle of a labor shortage, including a shortage of school bus drivers in a mostly rural state. Children who ride school buses, who were also eligible for free or reduced priced meals (77%), were arriving just before class and had to choose between a meal or getting to class on time.
Campaign planning: Knowing that we needed to clarify the legislation, and that we needed to get Republican Senators who would be willing to champion it, we reached out to Trey Grayson, the commonwealth’s former elected Republican Secretary of State. Grayson now serves with Kentucky’s premier law firm, Frost, Brown Todd, where he also serves as managing director of the firm’s government relations affiliate, CivicPoint. A partner in the firm, Scott Jennings, is a regular commentator on CNN, and he too, was enthusiastic about the campaign. Grayson recommended RunSwitch, a public relations firm, with whom he works regularly. The principals have personal connections to the cause, having worked as board members and volunteers for anti-hunger campaigns in the past. Kaylee Price and Mary Jane Rhodes proved very effective day-to-day partners in the effort. Grayson’s relationships in the legislature are deep. Widely respected and liked by politicos on both sides of the aisle, Grayson was able to leverage his relationships to connect the campaign with the appropriate senators very early in the session. First up was a junior member of the Senate, Jason Howell, a close friend of Grayson’s, who has young children, and whose district had just been torn apart by one of the most destructive tornados in US history. Families are still displaced, and the suffering has been palpable. Sen. Max Wise, chair of the Education Committee, was another early target, as the bill would have to clear his committee.
In the House, Rep. Steve Riley, a former teacher and vice chair of the House Ed committee was identified as a strong supporter. Ryan Quarles, the Agriculture Commissioner, had already built a reputation as an anti-hunger advocate, and was an anticipated candidate for Governor (he announced June 1st). With no fiscal note, Grayson saw a path for to get the bill to the floor. Since teachers and the association of school superintendents were on board in 2021, we had no concerns about opposition from the education sector. The comms team developed a name for the campaign, “Barriers to Breakfast”. Our message was centered — in op-eds and in fact sheets — around the long bus rides and kids getting to school late, through no fault of their own.
Polling: Change Research’s polling showed strong support for “Barriers to Breakfast”. 86% of Kentucky voters supported allowing students to eat breakfast during instruction time if their bus drops them off too late for the school-provided meal. Just 6% opposed. Two-thirds of all voters strongly supported it.
The Legislation: Only one substantive change was needed in the legislation. The change concerned the power to decide whether a school participated in the program. Rather than individual schools making this decision, it would fall to superintendents. There was quick agreement on this as Kentucky uses a “site-based council” system that already has significant power over how schools operate. Given support for the bill by the association of superintendents, we trusted that superintendents would make the right decisions for each of its schools.
Building awareness: In order to avoid being a victim of the calendar, we needed increased visibility and the public commitment of our sponsors. We needed to show legislative leaders that supporting this legislation was popular and could generate good press in an election year. Led by Kate McDonald, a press conference on February 9th accomplished both visibility and credibility with reporters and other members of the legislature. We had great coverage — thanks to RunSwitch – on both television and digital, and our sponsors elicited responses to reporter’s questions that included:
“How can anyone be against this bill? If you care about kids, how can anyone be against this bill?”
One Senator cited his personal experience in helping a boy in his son’s class with his reading proficiency. The child also needed breakfast, so they would go to the cafeteria and do both. He said, “We worked it out. Others can too.”
Agriculture Commissioner Quarles was also in attendance, and both he and the House and Senate Republican caucuses promoted the event on social media.
Lobbying: The vote in a mid-February hearing in the Senate Education committee was 12-0, and included a Senator who had voted against the bill last year. Thanks to the relationships that Kate McDonald enjoys in the state, school food service directors testified and did a compelling job describing the challenges facing schools and the children that they serve. Runswitch helped draft the testimony for speakers, social media content, the media advisory, letters to the editor, and a sign-on letter for cosponsors. Grayson helped get the bill assigned to the House Education committee, and it passed the full House by a 96-0 vote.
Results: As anticipated, Democratic Governor Andy Beshear signed the bill at the end of March.