SALT LAKE CITY — During his time as a police officer, Tyler Clancy responded to one call that led to him transporting a young girl to school.
On the way to school, he said the girl began to cry, revealing she had missed the school’s breakfast — along with dinner at home the night before — meaning she would have to wait until the school served lunch to get her next meal.
“It broke my heart on so many levels,” said Clancy, now a state representative for Provo.
In this instance, Clancy was able to take the girl to McDonald’s for breakfast, but he knew her situation wasn’t unique.
Experiences like this one inspired Clancy to run HB100, which expands the number of Utah’s K-12 students eligible to receive free school lunches while shielding participating kids from embarrassment and aiming to reduce food waste.
On Tuesday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox ceremonially signed the bill into law, saying it was “among my favorite” bills of the 2025 legislative session.
Utah’s school lunch debt is approximately $2.8 million; data from Feeding America shows it is home to 113,190 children who do not have access to enough food to meet their basic needs.
The new law will reportedly provide no-cost meals for 40,000 students currently receiving “reduced price” meals.
“What HB100 represents is a system that’s coming together to, hopefully, not just fix it for one person but (alleviate food insecurity) for years to come and for all those children who are in need,” Clancy said.
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