NYS action on free school meals coincides with federal pullbacks |
On Board Online • August 11, 2025
By Merri Rosenberg
Special Correspondent
"Congress Passes Mega Bill that Harms School Meal Programs."
That was the headline on a July 3 news release from the School Nutrition Association, which represents 50,000 professionals in school food service nationwide.
But school nutrition directors in New York State aren't as stressed as their counterparts in other states. In large part, credit goes to Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature, as the enacted state budget includes an additional $160 million for school meal reimbursements, bringing the total annual funding amount to $340 million.
The new state Universal Free School Meals Program will require all schools that participate in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs to serve free breakfast and lunch to each student, regardless of their family's income, beginning in the 2025-26 school year. District costs are reimbursable under both the federal meals program and the state meals program, which is structured to cover potential shortfalls in federal funding.
"This was really good news out of Albany," said NYSSBA Executive Director Robert Schneider. "Universal school meals will reduce student hunger and eliminate school meal debt. This was not only a sound decision by our state leaders, but a prescient one, given rising uncertainty about whether the federal government will release education allocations authorized by Congress."
At the start of the year, the House Ways and Means Committee proposed cuts to school meal programs as part of reconciliation discussions. Schneider said opposition by school advocates, including NYSSBA, was successful in having that item removed from the legislation.
If not already enrolled in federal meal programs, schools and districts had to apply to the State Education Department's Office of Child Nutrition by July 31, 2025, to participate in the 2025-26 school year to provide free school meals. To maximize federal reimbursement, many districts applied or reapplied under the Community Eligibility Provision or an alternate method called Provision 2.
"Once a school is certified and has applied for community eligibility, there is a three-year certification with an additional one-year extension," said Caitlin Lazarski, director of school nutrition for the Pine Bush Central School District, which includes communities in Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties. "That offers some continuity and stability for school food programs," Lazarski said.
"In New York State, we're really happy," she said.
A past president of the New York School Nutrition Association, Lazarski follows state and federal policy changes closely. When asked about a challenge she now faces because of the federal policy changes, Lazarski pointed to the now-defunct Local Food for Schools program. The $600 million program began under the Biden administration in 2021 and was cancelled by the Trump administration this year.
In Pine Bush, Lazarski used the program to purchase New York State products including apples and apple slices, as well as raw ground beef, mozzarella cheese and frozen vegetables. But that $40,000 in funding has disappeared.
The demise of the program also lets weeds grow over a bureaucratic highway that had been built from farms to schools. "School food programs must adhere to strict procurement regulations and delivery logistics, which can be challenging for small farms to manage on their own," Lazarski said.
The politics of school food
While school food service directors say they want to make decisions based on what's best for child nutrition, they say their choices are limited by federal restrictions on what qualifies for a reimbursable meal. For instance, schools must offer milk to all students.
But what kind of milk? Under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, signed by President Obama in 2010, schools have only received federal reimbursement if they stopped offering two percent and whole milk. In an attempt to reverse that policy, U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania has introduced the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act three times between 2019 and 2023, unsuccessfully. However, the whole milk bill has been getting more traction this year; the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry advanced the legislation on June 3 and the House Committee on Education and Workforce advanced it on June 5.
Meanwhile, a group of bi-partisan legislators have promoted a bill that would include plant-based milk choices, along with cow's milk. It's called the Freedom in School Cafeterias and Lunches (FISCAL) Act. Supporters of that bill question whether so much emphasis should be placed on serving cow's milk as many students are lactose intolerant or cannot consume milk for religious reasons. According to Boston Children's Hospital, more than 90% of Asian-Americans are lactose intolerant, as are 80 percent of all African-Americans and Native Americans. Islam requires milk to come from halal animals and prohibits mixing it with non-halal products, and many Jewish people do not mix milk and meat.
On another front, the secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. , , has made it a goal to remove "ultra-processed" food from school lunch menus. In support of that idea, U.S. Rep. Mike Kennedy, a Republican from Utah, has proposed the Healthy Lunch for Healthy Kids Act. Among other things, the bill would also ban foods containing certain additives and several artificial food dyes such as yellow dye 5 and red dye 40.
Jennifer Martin, executive director of the New York School Nutrition Association, said that her organization held a conference in May to address how to prepare for the new state universal free school meals program. She cautioned that while there's clarity for the 2025-26 school year, the full implications of federal cutbacks won't be completely apparent until planning for the 2026-27 school year.
"We're definitely keeping an eye on it," she said.