In a landmark move, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that New York’s 2025 state budget will include funding to provide free breakfast and lunch for all public school students, making New York one of the nation’s leaders in ensuring that no student goes hungry at school. This initiative marks a major step toward combating childhood food insecurity, supporting student achievement, and promoting long-term public health and equity.
“The research is clear: good food in the lunchroom creates good grades in the classroom,” Governor Hochul said. “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.”
The 2025 budget includes a historic $340 million allocation for school meals, representing an 89 percent increase, or an additional $160 million, over last year’s funding. This investment requires all school districts, charter schools, and nonpublic schools that participate in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs to provide free meals to all students, regardless of family income. By removing eligibility barriers, the state is reducing financial pressure on families. ensuring equitable access to nutrition for every child, and removing the stigma often attached to free and reduced meals.
Healthy School Meals for All programs have proven to significantly reduce food insecurity, improve students’ physical and mental health, support academic performance, and promote greater economic and educational equity. In essence, this policy positions nutritious meals as an essential part of a student’s right to learn, not a privilege based on income. Furthermore, universal access to school meals also helps eliminate the stigma often associated with receiving free or reduced-price lunches through the National School Lunch Program. When all students receive the same meals regardless of family income, it removes the social pressure or shame some children may feel, fostering a more inclusive and equitable school environment.
With this initiative, New York joins a progressive group of states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont, as well as New York City, in committing to universal free school meal programs. These states (and NYC) have recognized that food insecurity should not be a barrier to education and that feeding children is an investment in the future, not a cost to be minimized.
States adopting these programs have reported higher student participation in school meals, reduced the stigma associated with free or reduced lunch status, and increased health and academic benefits. New York’s move may help tip the scales toward a national movement and force federal policymakers to take note.
This critical move by New York comes at a time when federal safety nets are under threat. Congressional Republicans, backed by the Trump administration, have proposed deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which currently helps more than 40 million low-income Americans to purchase food. Proposals include tightening eligibility, adding work requirements, and reducing overall funding—measures that could disqualify millions and further exacerbate food insecurity among children.
These proposed changes would harm vulnerable families, many of whom rely on both SNAP and school meal programs to meet their basic nutritional needs. By instituting universal school meals, New York is proactively countering the potential fallout from these federal cuts and ensuring that students have at least one guaranteed source of daily nutrition.
New York’s universal meals program recognizes that hunger does not discriminate by income level and that many families fall through the cracks of income-based programs. By guaranteeing meals for all students, the state is investing in its children by nurturing not just academic potential, but physical and emotional well-being.
As debates over federal nutrition programs intensify, New York’s approach offers a model for how state leadership can step in to safeguard children’s welfare. It’s a blueprint not just for combating hunger but for building a healthier, fairer future.
