New Jersey will make about 26,000 more students eligible to receive free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch in school under a bill Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Friday.
Officials say the goal of the legislation (A2368) is to help more children avoid hunger and get nutritious food by expanding federally funded K-12 school meal programs that have long assisted lower-income families.
The law, called the Working Class Families’ Anti-Hunger Act, increases the threshold for eligibility in the state to include students from families in a slightly higher income bracket. Those from a household with an annual income of below 200% of the federal poverty level will now be eligible, as opposed to the current threshold of 185% or lower.
The measure requires more schools to offer a breakfast program, as well.
“Expanding the right to a free school lunch isn’t just the right thing to do educationally, it is the right thing morally,” Murphy said before signing the law during a public event at South Amboy Elementary School.
“These meals can ensure a growing body is properly nourished, providing the majority of the calories and nutrients a young person needs to learn, to play, to grow,” the governor added. “And for the families of these children, it means they can breathe more easily knowing their child is getting these healthy meals.”
Murphy said the law will also make the state “a little bit more affordable” for those families.
The changes will cost New Jersey taxpayers about $19.2 million a year, with the state reimbursing districts for the food not funded by the federal government. This will take effect for the 2023-24 school year.
State Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, a main sponsor of the law, said this comes at a critical time because a federal waiver program providing free school meals to anyone during the coronavirus pandemic ended in June. He also noted that inflation has “taken a bit out of everybody’s pocketbooks.”
“We all recognize how important having a healthy breakfast and lunch is to everybody and how it impacts their ability to succeed,” said Coughlin, a South Amboy native who has lobbied for numerous bills in recent years to help reduce hunger and boost nutrition in New Jersey.
“Imagine going to school and being hungry and knowing you’re not gonna have any lunch and then have to wonder about what’s gonna happen after that,” he added. “You don’t get to be your best self, you don’t get to maximize your talents, you don’t get to concentrate being a success in school.”
Currently, families considered “low-income” — defined as those with an annual income at 185% the federal poverty level or below — are eligible for free and reduced-price school meals under federal guidelines. The U.S. government uses taxpayer money to pick up the cost.
This law will increase eligibility in New Jersey to include students from “middle-income” families — those with an annual income of between 186% and 199% of the federal poverty level. The state has to foot the bill for any eligible students not covered by those federal thresholds.
A family of three earning $46,060 or less will now qualify under this law, compared to the family earning $42,606 or less who previously qualified.
The program can save a family of four about $1,200 a year, Coughlin said, based on the $3.50 average cost of a school lunch.
More than 395,000 children in New Jersey received free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch between 2019 and 2020, according to federal data.
Not all New Jersey schools are required to offer free or reduced-price meals, though this law expands that number, too. Currently, schools are required to offer a breakfast program if 20% of their students are eligible and a lunch program if 5% are eligible. Under this law, schools will be required to offer a breakfast program if 10% of their students are eligible.
That, officials say, will help lower-income students in more affluent districts.
Murphy on Friday also signed a separate bill into law (A2365) that requires school food authorities to educate parents and students about school meal programs, including by developing promotional materials.
In 2019, there were 762,530 New Jersey residents — including 192,580 children — who were “food insecure.” That includes people who reported in federal surveys they worry their food supply will run out, they cannot afford a balanced meal, or skipped meals for an entire day because they did not have enough money to buy food.
That translates into 1 in 12 residents and 1 in 10 children in New Jersey who live in homes “without consistent access to adequate food for everyone to live healthy, active lives,” according to the state Department of Health.
The state Senate passed the bill expanding eligibility for school meals 39-0 and the Assembly 73-5 in July.
Murphy signed a number of other bills into law addressing hunger and food insecurity in July, including making it easier for residents to receive federal nutrition benefits.
Coughlin and other officials painted the laws signed Friday as a big step toward making free or reduced-price school meals universal in New Jersey, available to all students — a move they said would help reduce the stigma for children who need them.
State Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, suggested cost isn’t an issue because “the volume of food we get rid of during the course of the day is enough to cover every single child to get free breakfast and free lunch.”
Officials on Friday admonished Congress for not extending the federal universal school meal program offered during the pandemic. U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-6th, agreed that he and his colleagues in Washington need to act and blamed Republicans for blocking a renewal.
“We’re certainly gonna try to make a difference,” Pallone said.
U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., held a separate news conference Thursday calling on Congress to extend the federal program in the upcoming federal budget, noting it would help feed an estimated 10 million students.
“We cannot continue to play these ridiculous and complicated games with the health and futures of our children,” Gottheimer said.
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @johnsb01.
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