‘If I have to lay off a few administrators to get kids potatoes, I’m there’: KIRO hosts spar over Seattle’s universal free school meals

Every student in Seattle Public Schools can now receive a free breakfast and free lunch each school day, and KIRO host Spike O’Neill said the investment in children’s nutrition is worth every penny, even if it means trimming the bureaucracy to pay for it.

“If I have to lay off a few administrators to get kids au gratin potatoes, I’m there,” Spike said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “My priority is making sure kids have food in front of them, breakfast and lunch.”

But KIRO fill-in host Greg Tomlin challenged the idea that meals are actually free, invoking economist Milton Friedman’s famous 1975 essay collection, “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.”

“Something for nothing, actions and policies do have costs whether they are direct or hidden,” Greg said.

He pointed to a piece by Elizabeth New at the Washington Policy Center that argues Washington programs routinely tax low-income workers to benefit higher earners.

“The Paid Family and Medical Leave and the Washington Cares programs both tax low-income workers to benefit other workers, including those with higher wages,” Tomlin said. “By the state’s own numbers, those making over $61 an hour use PFML more than twice as much as lowest-income workers. So, I have a problem with the universality of it.”

Teriyaki salmon, yakisoba, and pickled blueberries

The program, one of Mayor Katie Wilson’s key education initiatives, launched with the start of the new school year. The Seattle City Council approved $3.6 million in one-time funding to cover meals for the 2026–27 school year, according to The Cascadia Advocate.

More than half of the district’s 106 schools already offered free meals through federal and state programs, The Seattle Times reported. But Tomlin noted that about 60% of the district’s roughly 50,000 students had not qualified for the traditional income-based free or reduced-price meal program.

Wilson and Superintendent Ben Shuldiner attended a tasting session with students at Montlake Elementary, where kids sampled potential new menu items that reflect the diversity of the student body. New offerings include teriyaki salmon, chicken and beef yakisoba, plant-based al pastor soup, pickled blueberries, Hawaiian-style beef stew, au gratin potatoes, beef quesadillas, and smoked turkey barbecue bowls.

Spike says nutrition is education policy

Spike said nutrition is a fundamental part of any education policy and feeding kids should not be means-tested to the point where some children go hungry or face embarrassment.

“Kids who are hungry have a much more difficult time learning,” Spike said. “I think the superintendent said this: the stigma that children go through with regard to receiving reduced or free meals in school, it takes a toll on kids, and it’s a cumulative toll on kids.”

He also pushed back on the idea that offering kids more diverse food options would increase waste, arguing the opposite is true.

“If kids are given choices that are more in line with their home life, with foods they’re comfortable with and accustomed to eating, I think kids are going to eat more of this food,” Spike said. “I think nutrition is going to become a bigger factor in their ability to learn.”

Tomlin says ‘we’re beginning to lose the plot’

Tomlin took a different view, arguing that Seattle has a habit of creating safety nets for people who don’t need them, often at the expense of those who do.

“When you’re talking about providing two out of three squares a day to every child regardless of income, complete with teriyaki salmon, chicken and beef, yakisoba with veggies, plant-based al pastor soup, pickled blueberries, au gratin potatoes, beef quesadillas, smoked turkey barbecue bowls, it seems like we’re beginning to lose the plot a little bit,” Tomlin said.

He pressed Spike on whether taxpayers should be funding meals for families earning well into six figures.

“In a household that makes $350,000 a year?” Tomlin asked.

‘Throwing the baby out with the bathwater’

Spike acknowledged the point but said denying the program to all children because some families can afford to pay is the wrong trade-off.

“Throwing the baby out with the bathwater because a certain element of people will take advantage of a system they probably don’t need, to keep that from children who do need this, I think it’s a horrible equation,” Spike said.

He noted that even families who don’t qualify for the traditional free lunch program are struggling.

“There are folks that probably don’t qualify for the school’s free lunch programs that are right now barely making six figures,” Spike said. “They sure do need the help these days. If you can take buying breakfast and lunch for your kids out of your home budget and put it on the schools, I think it helps a lot of families.”

Tomlin warned that universal programs contribute to the kind of budget crises Seattle and Washington state are already facing.

“When you don’t start making the safety net specifically targeted to groups that need it the most, then you have things like a deficit crisis and a debt crisis, which, oh by the way, I think Seattle and the state of Washington are currently facing,” Tomlin said. “To the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3