Gov. Evers promotes school lunch programs while visiting Holmen High School

Wisconsin’s governor checks out engineering classes, computer studies, and the school cafeteria while making a trip to Holmen High School.

On Monday, Evers was visiting classrooms in La Crosse County for the second time this month, after a tour of science buildings two weeks ago at UW-L. The governor specifically went to Holmen to promote a $120 million plan to offer healthy school meals to more students around the state. 

Evers says he’s advocating for universal school breakfasts and lunches for students, “because if a kid is hungry, he’s gonna have a real difficult time doing his schoolwork.”

Evers talked with Holmen educators about their own Student Universal Nutrition Program, which provides breakfast and lunch to a large segment of the high school population.

“I can talk to food service people across the state, where they can always tell when Monday comes around,” Evers told reporters, “because these kids that are weaving in the line, because they haven’t had either much food over the weekend, or not any food.”

The Democratic governor is hopeful that Republicans in the legislature will go along with it, saying he hasn’t heard lawmakers declare his school meal plan “dead on arrival,” as has happened with other bills proposed by Evers.