I 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6934 
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to authorize the Secretary 
of Education to make grants to institutions of higher education to 
provide free meals to low-income students through existing on-campus 
meal programs, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 3, 2022 
Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. PA-
NETTA, Mr. PAYNE, Ms. PORTER, Mr. NADLER, Mr. GALLEGO, Ms. NOR-
TON, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. LEE of California, 
Mr. CA´RDENAS, and Mr. MCGOVERN) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor 
A BILL 
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to authorize 
the Secretary of Education to make grants to institutions 
of higher education to provide free meals to low-income 
students through existing on-campus meal programs, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Food for Thought Act 
of 2022’’. 
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SEC. 2. FREE MEALS FOR LOW-INCOME COLLEGE STU-
DENTS. 
Part A of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.) is amended by inserting 
after subpart 7 the following: 
‘‘Subpart 8—Meals for Low-Income Students 
‘‘SEC. 420A. FREE MEALS FOR LOW-INCOME STUDENTS. 
‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION.—From amounts made avail-
able under subsection (j), the Secretary is authorized to 
award grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible entities 
to provide free meals to low-income students through on- 
campus meal programs. 
‘‘(b) APPLICATIONS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—An eligible entity desiring 
to receive an award under subsection (a) shall sub-
mit an application to the Secretary at such time, in 
such manner, and containing such information as 
the Secretary may require. Such application shall in-
clude— 
‘‘(A) a plan for identifying eligible students 
and conducting outreach; and 
‘‘(B) an assurance that the eligible entity 
will— 
‘‘(i) conduct outreach to students with 
respect to the grant program under this 
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section, encourage student participation in 
such program, and inform students of— 
‘‘(I) their potential eligibility for 
participation in other Federal, State, 
and local benefit and support pro-
grams, including means-tested Fed-
eral benefits programs such as SNAP; 
and 
‘‘(II) the processes for obtaining 
more information, confirming eligi-
bility, and accessing benefits under 
such programs; 
‘‘(ii) evaluate institutional policies re-
lating to the purchase of on-campus meal 
plans and whether such policies create bar-
riers to enrollment and persistence for low- 
income students; 
‘‘(iii) identify ways to mitigate any in-
stitutional policies that are found, through 
the evaluation described in clause (ii), to 
create barriers described in such clause; 
and 
‘‘(iv) in the case of an eligible entity 
that is a consortia of eligible institutions of 
higher education that includes eligible in-
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