FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 12, 2024
In partnership with anti-hunger advocates, nutrition, education, and health organizations along with a coalition of parents, the Arizona Food Bank Network is grateful to see that Governor Hobbs has prioritized school meal access for Arizona’s children in her FY-25 budget proposal.
PHOENIX, AZ – Today, Governor Hobbs released her FY-2025 budget proposal, and AzFBN and our school nutrition partners are encouraged to see an extension of the $5 million investment in reduced price school meal family copays past its current expiration of June 2024. This is great news for Arizona’s families and children who rely on school meals for basic nutrition.
According to a comprehensive statewide assessment by the ASU Food Policy and Environment Research Group published in a report in 2023, consumption of school meals is directly linked with greater food security, reduced obesity rates, and improved physical and mental health. School meals are also critical for students’ attendance, academic achievement, and standardized test scores. The cost modeling in this report helped inform the January 2023 investment covering the reduced price school meal copays of 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch for families.
The current investment has made an estimated 12 million meals more accessible to children in low-income households across the state. For example, a high school student in the East Valley who said he “used to go without lunch unless he could find money in the couch cushions” was able to get lunch every day last year before he graduated.
School nutrition staff and program providers have been concerned about the funding expiring in June, given the impact it would have for families at a time when inflation and food costs are still high.
“For the 1 in 7 kids in Arizona struggling with food insecurity, improved access to healthy school meals is critical,” said April Bradham, President and CEO of the Arizona Food Bank Network. “We know that school meals are often the only hot meal some kids get all day, so we’re encouraged to see that the Governor wants to keep this funding in place. It’s already helping tens of thousands of kids statewide in traditional and charter school districts, and we look forward to continuing that.”
Investing in school meals has not only supported kids and families over the past year, but has also allowed school nutrition staff more time to focus on menu planning, local food procurement, and culturally relevant recipe development. Importantly, it has also nearly eliminated school meal debt in many districts.
“Some of our parents earn just over the threshold for free meals but not enough to really make ends meet—especially those with multiple kids,” said Joan Chiarello, Food and Nutrition Director at Deer Valley Unified School District. “Seventy cents per child per day really adds up. With the current funding covering that, we’ve seen more kids getting meals and fewer schools seeing debt.”
Extending the funding for reduced-price school meal copays benefits Arizona’s children, families, and communities, and AzFBN and our partners hope to see it included in the final FY-25 state budget.
State of Arizona Executive Budget Summary Fiscal Year 2025
For any questions, please reach out to Ashley St. Thomas, Director of Public Policy, at (857) 225-0297 or [email protected]
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