(March 17, 2023), Governor Healey and Lt. Governor Driscoll made an important announcement. They want to help kids who don’t always have enough food. They suggested adding more money to the budget for something called “School Meals for All.” This would continue into the next school year, which is 2023-2024.
The Feed Kids Coalition, which is led by Project Bread, has been asking for this for a while. Right now, they’re holding a special week called Feed Kids Action Week. They’re happy that the Governor and Lt. Governor are thinking about the kids and their food.
Last year, the same thing happened, and schools gave meals to all kids. This started because of the government. Now, it’s great that Governor Healey wants to keep helping kids get meals. It’s nice to see that they really care about this and are listening to the people who want this to happen!
The boss of Project Bread, Erin McAleer, said, “The Healey-Driscoll team is doing a brave thing. They want to stop kids from being hungry. In some places across the country, there are kids who can’t get food at school. This makes things even harder for families, teachers, and towns. Here in Massachusetts, we’re showing the way to fix this problem. We’re saying thanks to Governor Healey and Lt. Governor Driscoll for helping everyone in our state have enough to eat.”
In our state, lots of kids have already gotten better food because of School Meals for All. In October 2022, 80,000 more kids got lunch at school than they did in October 2019. Some of these kids used to be able to get free lunch, but they didn’t take it back in 2019. Now, they’re eating lunch at school without feeling embarrassed.
This idea is like a present for the next year. It’s a way to make sure kids do well in school and stay healthy. It also helps the people who make food at school and have been working super hard for three years to make sure kids aren’t hungry.
Since the government already helped with School Meals for All in the last budget, we want them to do it again. We hope they decide quickly to make this program continue for next school year. That way, families and schools won’t have to worry about food.