Bringing free lunch to all of New York City’s school children Lunch Students Before 2017, in New York City, 75% of the 1.1 million public school students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, but only one-third of eligible students took part in the program. Food is the one arena in public schools that segregates children by family income. Students, especially in high school, skip the lunch program to avoid the embarrassment and bullying associated with being poor. Nutrition and overall health and wellbeing in children are indisputably linked, but social acceptance trumps healthy eating habits for children and young adults. Making meals free for all students delinks school food from family income and removes the barrier to lunch participation. When all kids have access to universal free school lunch, that stigma lessens and more students participate. School districts across the country and in New York State had already implemented universal school lunch, such as Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Boston, and Buffalo. New York City was a laggard, even though it made sense health-wise and financially to implement the program. Schools with universal lunch have higher participation rates of students eating lunch and more positive student interactions. And although universal school lunch would require an estimated investment of an additional $8.75 million by the City, it would yield additional federal and State reimbursements, according to an analysis by Community Food Advocates (CFA). Higher levels of school lunch participation also increase schools’ purchasing power, allowing them to provide more local and fresh food options. Securing buy-in for universal school lunch from the City, with its multitude of competing budget priorities, would require coordinated educational and advocacy efforts on multiple fronts. In 2013, CFA launched its Lunch 4 Learning Campaign (L4L) to make free and healthy school meals available to all New York City public school students, regardless of income. In its first two years, the L4L campaign was partially successful: in June 2015, the City approved funding to make universal lunch available to all middle school students. Within the first six months of implementation, participation in the lunch program at middle school New York, NY : New York State Health Foundation, September 2020 New York State Health Foundation, issuing body. Technical Report Text Illustrations 1 online resource (1 PDF file (7 pages)) nlm:nlmuid-9918402186006676-pdf 9918402186006676 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918402186006676 English New York New York City United States Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0