The state should fund school meals for students

The state is pouring money into Long Island schools, emphasizing the importance of investing in our children's education and future paths. But that won't mean much if those same children go hungry.

During the pandemic, the federal government funded free school meals for every student in every school. Those federal waivers expired last year. So, it's up to Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature to close the gap, and make sure every student has the option of a healthy breakfast and lunch.

There are schools across the state that continue to receive federal funding for meals because there are enough students in the district or citywide system who qualify, due to low income. But 726,000 students in nearly 2,000 schools currently don't have access to free meals. About one-third — 243,000 children in more than 500 schools — are on Long Island.

That's in part because some individual schools or school districts have enough families who can afford to feed their children that those educational entities do not qualify for federal subsidies. The result: Those in need aren't getting the help they should receive. Even Long Island's wealthiest districts educate and care for children who would go hungry if not for the meals their schools provide.

Those schools are still required to provide meals to all children, but they charge the families for the breakfasts and lunches. Too often, those families can't pay. Districts attempt to collect the money from their students. And when that fails, the districts are burdened with unpaid meal debt, which is on the rise across Long Island. In Patchogue-Medford, for example, the unpaid meals balance stands at about $48,000, compared to just $18,000 in the 2018-2019 school year, before the pandemic.

The federal system wrongly establishes a hierarchy of haves and have-nots among children. The stigma causes some students to avoid the cafeteria line altogether, even if they're hungry. Others who should qualify don't, because they didn't fill out the applications, or didn't complete them properly. Some suggest the responsibility for providing universal free meals lies with the federal government. But federal officials haven't done their part, so the state must.

The State Senate and Assembly should include a universal free school meals program in their proposed budgets. Hochul has to make sure it ends up in the final version of the spending plan. It's a $200 million program, just 0.1% of the state's budget, and would cost $275 per student per year. The impact would be tremendous.

We make sure all of our students have teachers and textbooks, classrooms and computers. We should make sure all of them — including those who can't afford it — have breakfast and lunch, too.