No child should go hungry and every child in every public school in North Carolina should have access to breakfast and lunch at school at no cost to their families.
JOIN
Sign up for our listserv and attend a coalition meeting to get involved with School Meals for All NC
TAKE ACTION
Sign a letter, submit a letter-to-the-editor, or email your legislator to show your support for school meals for all
DONATE
Donate to School Meals for All NC to support our advocacy and lobbying efforts to ensure that every child in every public school in North Carolina has access to breakfast and lunch at school at no cost to their families.
1 in 6 kids goes hungry every day
in North Carolina.
School meals for all can help.
Our Guiding Principles
No child should go hungry.
School meals should be available at no cost to all students in public schools.
No child should experience shame or stigma due to an inability to pay for school meals.
School meals help children succeed both in and out of school and build strong, resilient communities.
No-cost school meals are an investment in academic performance.
KIDS WHO EAT HEALTHY SCHOOL MEALS DO BETTER IN SCHOOL.
Studies show that providing students with healthy meals at school makes them more attentive and engaged in the classroom, leading to better grades, higher attendance rates, and higher graduation rates.
School meals are healthy.
SCHOOL MEALS MEET STRICT NATIONAL NUTRITION GUIDELINES.
Thus, while food served in schools may look like what is served at home, it is actually specially formulated to meet these guidelines.
School meals are an investment in our economy.
School meals for all will support local suppliers.
The debt left with school nutrition programs at the end of the year must be absorbed by the district, preventing funding from being used on other educational needs. School meals for all will put school districts and school nutrition programs in a stronger financial position, reducing the need for programs to make a choice between fiscal responsibility and providing students with nutritious meals.
School Meals 101
In this webinar recorded on January 25, 2023, Alecia Sanders and Marianne Hedrick Weant with the North Carolina Alliance for Health break down school meals and their funding.
Our Partners
Coalition Leadership
Resources
Catch Up On School Meals
Meals Matter: The Community Eligibility Provision and Student Success in North Carolina
This brief describes the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and looks at differences in student outcomes between schools with similar income levels that do and don’t participate in CEP. Download PDF
ICYMI: Buffet of School Meals Resources
Catching Up on School Meals: For the past 2 years, all students have received school meals at no cost thanks to federal USDA waivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. But those waivers expired on June 30. What does this mean for school meals in North Carolina? In our FWIW...