For students to be successful in the classroom, their basic needs must also be met. Unfortunately. Many families struggle to put food on the table, and students living below the poverty line may not receive adequate nutrition, which in turn impacts their academic performance. Free and reduced lunches have been provided to primary school students for years. However, in recent years these school lunches have come under scrutiny for contributing to childhood obesity. In 2010, Michelle Obama led an initiative to reform school meals, and Congress passed the Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. This bill changed the nutritional standards that schools that received federal funding must follow for free or reduced-price lunches. Specifically, it increased the amount of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains in lunches and limited the amount of processed, sugary and refined products. Yet today, Republicans oppose reauthorization of the bill. Why would our legislators oppose a bill that makes school meals healthier? The contracts big food companies had for these cheap, easy-to-produce processed lunches were extremely profitable, and changing nutritional needs threatened their profit margins. We should blame not only the greedy interests of these big corporations, but also our politicians, who are too busy raising money for reelection campaigns and responding to their donor voters instead of prioritizing education and our