Healthy School Meals for All New York Kids

New York can and must ensure all children in our state have secure, equal access to healthy school meals at no cost.

Providing free meals for all students—regardless of income—is a proven strategy to reduce food insecurity, support learning, improve mental and physical health, and bolster educational and economic equity. Yet at the start of this school year, more than 726,000 students in nearly 2,000 schools across the state lost access to free school meals. New York State must establish and fund a permanent, statewide Healthy School Meals for All program to ensure all students have the healthy food they need to learn and thrive.

Visit the Healthy School Meals for All campaign website to learn more and join us.

Hunger Solutions New York has worked for over thirty years to maximize school meals throughout New York State. Our targeted outreach and technical assistance has supported over 60% of NY schools providing free school meals for all students. We also advocate for federal and state policies to improve access to school meals, and have successfully advanced state policies to eliminate the reduced-price copayment, establish statewide unpaid meal balance policies, and improve access to school breakfast in high-poverty schools.

Community Food Advocates (CFA) is a New York City nonprofit that advocates to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to healthy, affordable, plentiful and culturally appropriate foods. In 2017, CFA led a coalition of over 200 organizations and elected officials across New York City and State to secure universal free school lunch (UFL) for all of New York City’s 1.1 million public school students. The campaign, Lunch 4 Learning (L4L), has since built on the foundation of city-wide universal free school lunch with high impact policy changes. We are eager to ensure all NYS students are guaranteed free school meals.