Albany can feed all New York kids
In recent days, word around Albany has been that Gov. Hochul and legislative leaders have “found” an additional $1.3 billion for next year’s budget. Amid budget negotiations, legislators absolutely have no shortage of ideas about what they can do with these additional tax dollars, and I’m certain they’re aligning these ideas with what will boost political goodwill amongst their voters.
There is one investment that would increase their support among all New Yorkers. Every demographic, every neighborhood, and every political persuasion agrees: no child in New York should go hungry.
More than 20 years ago, I co-founded the Alliance to End Hunger. With my Irish heritage (my paternal grandparents were Irish and came to New York City as very young children), hunger is an issue that hits close to home.
The Alliance is a national advocacy organization that unites corporations, national non-profits, faith based organizations, and others to address today’s hunger and malnutrition needs and to solve the root causes of hunger at home and abroad. This starts with federal nutrition programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).
WIC provides breastfeeding education and support and supplemental nutritious foods, like cereal, milk, cheese, whole wheat bread, brown rice, eggs, beans, peanut butter, legumes, and infant formula to low-income mothers and children up to age 5. WIC is an enormously popular and effective program that supports an estimated 40% of American babies.
Once kids enter school, meals there are equally important. Hungry kids do not develop properly, and hungry children cannot learn. School meals are the greatest source of nutrition for most American kids — and this is where New York needs to step up.
New York did the right thing last year. The Legislature and the governor committed $135 million to feed students in schools across the state. Because of this commitment, 81% of New York kids are able to get the nutrition they need in school. The new funding ensured that high-poverty schools in New York could more easily enroll all students in school meals — without those students needing to demonstrate need or fill out arduous paperwork.
But New York lawmakers stopped short of making sure that every child has the opportunity to be fed in school.
We give all public school children books, teachers, playground equipment, and more without regard to family income. Why do we start means-testing families when it comes to meals? The books, teachers, and playground equipment don’t go a long way if kids are hungry and cannot learn.
It would take just 7% of this newly “found” money, $90.4 million, to put New York on par with California, Michigan, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont, Maine, New Mexico and Nevada and provide universal school meals for all school children — regardless of their families’ income.
In these states 15 million American schoolchildren are guaranteed the nutrition they need at school. New York can not stop at finishing the job.
Universal school meals has support on all sides of the aisle, with almost 90% of New Yorkers supporting free school meals for all. In every state in which my organization has polled this year, support for school meals is so high that pollsters in places like Pennsylvania, Illinois and South Carolina, have never seen such strong bipartisan results.
The widespread popularity makes sense: Ensuring students are well-fed is proven to boost test scores, improve behavioral health, and reduce racial health disparities and academic achievement gaps.
In New York City, where all children have the opportunity to be fed in school, test scores are rising, stigma is decreasing, and students have a better environment as a result of universal school meals. Studies have shown that students with greater food security have higher retention and better attendance, graduation rates and academic performance. Future college graduates are much more likely to be employed and make economic contributions to their local communities.
This isn’t a controversial issue, and it’s a vital investment in the future of New York children. Getting meals straight into the mouths of all kids is an instant, common-sense way to help put an end to the vicious cycle of childhood hunger without the stigma.
The Legislature and the governor should take our “found” money and put it towards feeding every hungry kid in our state — not just the ones that pass archaic means tests.
Meehan is the CEO and chairman of Azimuth Trust and is a former governor of the New York Stock Exchange. He is on the board of the Alliance to End Hunger, which has more than 100 organizations as members.