Village. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed legislation on Monday to provide free school meals to all students regardless of family income, as New Mexico and several other states seek to fill a gap left by lapsed federal pandemic-era benefit programs and families. Let’s watch to relieve the stress of the budget. because of food prices.
The bill was approved by the Legislature during the most recent 60-day session, in which lawmakers set aside more than $22 million in the state budget to help pay for the program. The extra money will be used to improve the school’s kitchen so that healthier meals can be prepared.
“When we feed our children, we are feeding our future — these investments today through generations of healthy New Mexicans tomorrow,” the Democratic governor said in a statement released after celebrating with dozens of elementary school students. Will benefit.”
California and Maine have made universal meals permanent, legislation to do so is moving in Vermont, and Nevada has committed $75 million to expand free school meals for this school year. In Colorado, voters last fall approved a ballot measure giving school districts the opportunity to provide free lunches.
Nationally, debt for unpaid school meals is on the rise, reflecting the need to provide free meals to ensure that students are able to concentrate in class. A recent report released by the Food Research and Action Center showed that school breakfast and lunch programs had higher participation during the last school year than pre-pandemic levels.
According to the New Mexico Department of Public Education, approximately 67% – or 309,000 New Mexico students – are eligible to receive free and reduced-price lunches through the National School Lunch Program.
The signing of the legislation could affect about 70,000 students who normally have to pay for school meals, with department officials reporting a 5% to 10% drop in participation in districts that operate national school lunch programs. % growth is expected.
Lujan Grisham included the motion in his State of the Union address, saying that wherever children are, a kitchen should work to keep them healthy, strong, and ready to learn.
Still, some say more money will be needed to bankroll the effort over time. This year, New Mexico was drenched in new revenue due to financial unpredictability from oil production.
Legislative analysts have estimated that providing the meals at no cost to students in participating schools could result in a total of between $27 million and $40 million in recurring funding from the state general fund.
Advocacy groups see universal free school meals as the next step in New Mexico’s march toward combating historically high food insecurity rates in a state that has long been struggling with poverty. Other recent efforts include legislation in 2020 that eliminated student co-payments for low-priced school meals, and a 2017 measure that allowed New Mexico to join the U.S. became the first state in the U.S. to ensure that children could not be humiliated by school meal loans.
The new law aims to boost the amount of food coming from local producers through farm-to-table grants. Currently, approximately 168 farmers, ranchers, and food businesses sell locally produced products to schools in 19 of the state’s 33 counties.
Supporters also hope the new law will reduce food waste by giving students from kindergarten to sixth grade more time to sit down and eat, and by collecting unused food for use by food pantries, students, and other charitable organizations.