North Dakotans will vote in November on a mandate that the state must pay for meals for K-12 students.

The North Dakota Secretary of State’s Office announced Thursday it has approved a sufficient number of signatures submitted by the Together for School Meals coalition to place the initiated measure on the November 3 ballot. It will be listed as Measure 3.

“This is a huge milestone,” Robin Nelson, chair of Together for School Meals, said in a news release. “North Dakotans from every corner of the state worked to place this on the ballot because this issue is real, it is urgent, and it is deeply connected to the future we want for our children.”

If the measure passes, public schools would start providing free breakfast and lunch during the 2027-28 school year.

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The measure would change the state constitution to dictate that earnings from North Dakota’s Legacy Fund be used to pay for breakfast and lunch at school unless the Legislature identifies another funding source. A portion of the state’s oil and gas taxes were used to create the Legacy Fund.

The federal government has a free and reduced-cost meal program, which will defray some of the cost. The Legislature has provided money to pay for school meals for some families not eligible for the federal program, but has stopped short of funding meals for all students.

More than 47,000 K-12 students in North Dakota receive free or reduced meals though the National School Lunch Program, according to data from the Department of Public Instruction. About 3,000 of those students are subsidized by state money under an expansion to the program adopted by the Legislature.

The measure applies to public schools but says nonpublic schools, Bureau of Indian Education schools and other tribal schools are eligible to participate.

The state Department of Public Instruction has estimated that the program would cost about $133 million for the 2027-2029 state budget cycle. The actual cost will depend on how many students eat at the school and how many families sign up for the federal program.

The Secretary of State’s Office said 49,338 petition signatures were accepted, 18,174 signatures more than the 31,164 needed to get the measure on the ballot.

There were 57,419 signatures submitted on April 9 with 8,081 signatures rejected because of incorrect or insufficient information.

Polls have shown broad support for free school meals.

Reach North Dakota Monitor deputy editor Jeff Beach at jbeach@northdakotamonitor.com