As food insecurity wages across the city, lawmakers look to expand free school meals

With New York City schools back in session, last year’s end of year attendance reports showed high rates of chronic absenteeism, affecting nearly 35% of public school students. While some cited issues with public transportation and a decline in youth mental health among factors behind chronic absenteeism – experts suspect that high rates of childhood food insecurity may be the leading cause. Despite the city’s community schools providing free breakfast, lunch and afterschool snacks for all enrolled students, advocates say there’s still an urgent need for adoption of expanded statewide universal meal programs. 

As emergency food assistance programs such as pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer and expanded Child Tax Credits dry up, food insecure families who had relied on these essential benefits now juggle higher costs of living. According to a poll conducted by No Kid Hungry last spring, 85% of New Yorkers reported that the cost of food was outpacing their income, most notably among parents of school children and rural households.

“Costs are all rising, and in order to keep a roof over their heads, unfortunately, [parents] are having to cut their budget on food. So that's why no cost school meals for every child is such an important issue to be talking about,” said Rachel Sabella, director of No Kid Hungry New York. 

As nearly 1 in 4 children in New York City experience food insecurity, with monthly food pantry visits surpassing pre-pandemic levels, more children now depend on free school meals. Among them are migrant children who joined incoming school cohorts. According to Francillia Samuel, community school director of P.S. 268 The Emma Lazarus Elementary School, food insecurity visibly cuts into a student’s attendance and academic performance. 

“A child's needs need to be met at the most basic level before we can expect a child to want to succeed and to elevate themselves mentally,” Samuel said. “If a child's hungry, if a child is cold, if a child is suffering from any level of insecurity, and not just mentally or emotional, [but] basic needs, they cannot focus. They're losing energy, and they're more susceptible to a lowered immune system.” 

Located in East Flatbush Emma Lazarus is a NYC Community School—a city-funded school model aimed at improving attendance and reducing drop-outs in underserved communities. Partnered with City Year New York’s AmeriCorps members, community schools like Emma Lazarus tailor programs to a child’s needs by offering wraparound services, including additional academic assistance, child welfare and food assistance. 

Since October 2022, Emma Lazarus has welcomed 100 migrant children, all of whom live in shelters. To accommodate this new cohort, the school adopted English as a New Language instruction, provided parents with wellness and language coaches while helping all food insecure families meet essential needs. 

“We remind and notify them that we do have our pantry. If they need to get some extra supplies, they can come over and get them. We've also had food drives for our families to be a little bit more subtle, because having any level of insecurity can impact self-esteem, so we don't want to ever expose that information too explicitly,” said Samuel. 

Emma Lazarus provides free breakfast, lunch and warm after-school meals to all students year-round, while keeping dining halls open during holidays to ensure families have access to appliances and warm food. While experts say that the city’s reimbursement system has been responsive by allocating additional resources to incoming migrant cohorts, Samuel says the adjustment has been challenging. 

“It has been extremely challenging, but a welcome challenge,” said Samuel. “We had to figure out how to ensure that families feel safe, welcome, and our students feel ready to learn. That was a challenge because as I'd mentioned before, if the basic needs are not met, a child can't start thinking about sitting in a classroom in this new space and opening a book in a new language.” 

While the city offers free meals to all enrolled students through an expansion of the federal Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP, which broadened the income threshold required for free school meals, this isn’t the case statewide. 

According to a report by Hunger Solutions New York, more than 320,000 students in nearly 660 schools statewide were left out of this expansion – affecting families living in high-cost areas where housing and food prices outpace salaries. With the expiration of pandemic-era funding leading to further declines in free school meal participation and increased childhood food insecurity, policy makers are calling for an expansion of  universal meal programs. 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s Universal School Meals Program Act will provide free breakfast, lunch, dinners and after-school snacks to all U.S. schoolchildren by removing income eligibility requirements through an expansion of CEP. The legislation also aims to remove school meal debt – which according to Krista Hesdorfer, director of public affairs at Hunger Solutions New York, can worsen childhood food insecurity. 

“We know that the expansion of CEP in New York state is an important first step for ending School Meal debt, which is our ultimate goal. We want to make sure that all families have access to free school meals, and there's never fear or stigma or concern that a student is going to rack up debt for their family,” said Hesdorfer. “Across the state, a student might hesitate to eat at school because they're concerned about accruing debt for their family.” 

According to Hesdorfer, removing all income barriers to free lunches will simplify administrating meals, opening doors to more accessible service models.

 “When meals are available to all at no cost, it becomes a more natural part of the school day, where everybody has access, which lowers stigma,” Hesdorfer said. “Universal school meals have the immediate benefit of removing the financial barrier and the paperwork barrier. We could make this much simpler for everyone by just feeding all of our kids.”