Hungry students can’t learn and access to nutritious meals at school is vital for children’s physical and mental development. Without adequate funding, school meal programs will suffer and children may go hungry.
Take action in support of increased federal reimbursements for school meals. Two new bills have been introduced in Congress that would provide crucial funding to school nutrition programs:
- H.R. 1269, the “Healthy Meals Help Kids Learn Act,” introduced by Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), would permanently increase the federal reimbursement rate for all school lunches by 45 cents and school breakfast by 28 cents, with annual adjustments.
- H.R. 1424, the “Helping Schools Feed Kids Act,” introduced by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), would extend the increased reimbursement rate of 40 cents for lunch and 15 cents for breakfast, stipulated in the “Keep Kids Fed Act of 2022,” through SY2023-24.
These bills are urgently needed as the current reimbursement rates expire July 2023. A decrease in federal funding will ensure a failure to cover costs. This leaves school meal programs in crisis! Financial losses will cut into education budgets, impeding efforts to meet the needs of students and jeopardizing progress in school nutrition programs.
We need your help to urge Congress to support H.R. 1269 and H.R. 1424 and act on the other requests in the SNA 2023 Position Paper. Use the SNA Action Network, which allows you to contact your representatives directly with a pre-written message. All you need to do is fill in your contact information and hit send, and SNA can do the rest.
Act now to help support our children’s health and well-being and keep School Meal Programs viable!
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