When Congress ended pandemic-era free lunches for public schools in 2022, student meal debt skyrocketed in Kansas. One Wichita-area 6th grader launched her own fundraiser to tackle students’ lunch tabs at her school district. Plus: "Cow goggles" are allowing farmers to see through bovine eyes, and potentially improve animal welfare.

During the pandemic, public schools in Kansas provided free meals to every student, regardless of their family’s ability to pay. But when that federal program ended in 2022, school meal debt in Kansas skyrocketed beyond pre-pandemic levels. Experts who track this data say that debt in Kansas reached about $23.5 million after those free meals ended, about six times what districts reported in 2019. In the Valley Center School District near Wichita, one 6th grader is organizing an effort to pay off other students’ lunch tabs. Daniel Caudill reports for the Kansas News Service.

Animal agriculture is under scrutiny by consumers. People who eat meat are thinking more about the environmental impacts and the welfare of cattle and other livestock, from farm to processing plant. As Harvest Public Media's Hope Kirwan reports, one Midwest university is hoping a new augmented reality tool will give people working with livestock a better understanding of a cow's perspective.

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Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Gabe Rosenberg, Madeline Fox and Emily Younker.

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