Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas at Westbury Middle School on Friday. Photo: Office of Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas
Jan. 10, 2025 By Shane O’Brien
Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas joined Gov. Kathy Hochul at Long Island’s Westbury Middle School Friday to announce the inclusion of free breakfast and lunch for all of New York State’s 2.7 million students in the State of the State budget proposal.
González-Rojas, a prime sponsor of the Universal School Meals Act, welcomed the inclusion of the measure in the budget proposal, stating that the act would guarantee that all school children, no matter their family’s income level, can receive a healthy breakfast and lunch every school day.
New York students can already receive free or discounted meals through a federal program that is dependent on a family’s income level. The Universal School Meals Act would make free breakfast and lunch available to all students regardless of their family’s income, a measure that González-Rojas says is critical in addressing stigma in schools across the state.
She also said the measure would help nourish young New Yorkers as well as help families save about $165 in grocery expenses per child per month.
“I cannot think of a more important function for those of us in government than to eliminate hunger for hundreds of thousands of students. I’m eternally grateful to the coalition who helped us get here. Let’s get this done,” González-Rojas said in a statement.
“Today is a step forward in ensuring that no student in New York goes hungry as they learn in our schools,” she continued, stating that universal school lunches could help address both affordability and rising rates of hunger.
New York Attorney General Leticia James also welcomed the inclusion of universal school lunches in the budget proposal, stating that hunger can harm a students’ academic success as well as their well-being.
“For years, I have called for every New York student to have access to free lunches, and I am glad this is finally being addressed. I thank the governor for advancing this proposal and it is my deepest hope that this is finally the year universal free lunch is achieved,” James said in a statement.
The announcement came as Hochul rolls out a series of proposals aimed at addressing New York State’s high cost of living.
The measure, which is the fifth proposal of Hochul’s affordability agenda for the 2025 State of the State, will help save parents money, address food insecurity among New York kids, and create more opportunities for students to succeed, according to Hochul’s office.
“The research is clear: good food in the lunchroom creates good grades in the classroom,” Hochul said in a statement. “I’m proposing free school meals for every student in New York – giving kids the sustenance they need and putting more money back in parents’ pockets.”
A report released last April by the non-profit Hunger Solutions New York found that hundreds of thousands of New York students lost access to free school breakfast and lunch during the 2022/23 academic year following the expiration of federal funding.
Nearly 793,000 children in New York participated in school breakfast and just over 1.5 million participated in school lunch on an average day during the 2022–2023 school year, the report found.
Hochul’s proposal would entitle all 2.7 million students to access free school breakfast and lunches throughout the academic year.
Shortly after announcing the proposal on Friday, Hochul spoke at a news conference, saying that expanding school meals to all students would play a major role in reducing stigma among students.
“To be singled out and your classmates know that you are the one who has to get subsidized help for your meals, that’s a mark on you. Our kids don’t need that,” Hochul said at a news conference on Friday.
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