There is currently a proposal working through the state legislature called the Healthy School Meals for All Program.

This program would provide free meals for all students in New York State Public Schools.  

While some schools already have free meal programs, this would extend that opportunity to every child in our state.  

The program is supported by many members of the New York State Assembly and the state
Senate, and hopefully will be included in the State Legislature’s budget that will be released soon.  

This would help our students — we know that when children have enough to eat, test scores go up, attendance improves, and there are fewer discipline problems. 

This would help our schools administratively — as many schools are burdened with the task of determining who qualifies for free or reduced-price
meals and monitoring those
policies.  

It would help our schools financially — as many schools find themselves struggling financially because of the nearly impossible task of collecting lunch fees from parents who do not pay what they owe and, in many cases, cannot pay.  

Finally, this would help families who struggle with the high cost of raising children.  

The average monthly cost for school meals in New York State is about $140 per month per student. 

A family with three school age children could pay about $420 per month.  

This program would give young families some much-needed financial relief; and the cost of the program is small: One dime out of every $100 that the state currently spends. 

Please contact your State Representatives in both the Assembly and the Senate to urge them to make this a permanent feature of our annual budgets.  

Our children and our families deserve this. 

— Robert E. Cleveland, Rome