Beeps to bill: Free school lunch

ALL FIVE of the city’s borough presidents are pushing Mayor de Blasio to offer free lunch to all public school kids.

The pols — Staten Island Republican Jimmy Oddo and Democrats Eric Adams of Brooklyn, Gale Brewer of Manhattan, Melinda Katz of Queens and Ruben Diaz Jr. of the Bronx — wrote a letter to de Blasio asking him to put the cash in next year’s budget for universal free lunch.

Kids currently qualify for free lunch based on their income, but backers of universal free lunch argue some end up going hungry because they’re too embarrassed to take the freebies when others are paying.

During the 2015-16 school year, 76.5% of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch.

“Students would, over time, feel less stigmatized by universal free lunch and would be able to study without hunger,” the borough presidents wrote. “School staff would not have to spend valuable time trying to collect and account for student payments.”

The city started a pilot program to offer universal free lunch at all middle schools. But officials have said it has not make enough of a difference in lunch participation to merit expanding to all schools.

Backers estimate free lunch for all would cost another $9 million on top of the $11.25 million being spent on the middle school program.

“Universal free lunch was expanded and is now offered to over 350,000 students citywide,” said de Blasio spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein. “We are reviewing the possibility of expanding it to even more schools and are doing our due diligence to make sure resources are used wisely.”