RELEASE: Gottheimer Announces “Feed Our Kids Act” to Fight Farm Bill Cuts to School Meals for Hungry Jersey Children

SNAP Cuts Will Hurt Jersey Families, Farms, & Cost Taxpayers Millions

Farm Bill Must Be Fixed – “It’s Rotten At Its Core”

HILLSDALE, N.J. — Today, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) announced  new, federal legislation, the Feed Our Kids Act, which would provide free breakfast, lunch, and afterschool snacks to every student in K-12 public schools across America. 

This legislation comes as Gottheimer sounded the alarm on the devastating nutrition cuts jammed through by House Republicans in the Farm Bill last week. It would lock in cuts in critical funding for school meals, SNAP, and local food programs that threaten to push hundreds of thousands of New Jersey students into hunger.

Right now, over 400,000 kids in Jersey rely on free or reduced school meals each and every day.

Gottheimer made the announcement at Ann Blanche Elementary School in Hillsdale, New Jersey, with local elected officials, educators, hunger-relief advocates, and community leaders.

“You can’t propel a rocket without fuel. The same goes for a growing student,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “Too many children in New Jersey are still showing up to school every morning with the tank reading empty. In the greatest country in the world, it is simply unacceptable that one in seven children in our state faces food insecurity. The Feed Our Kids Act will change that — no stigma, no bureaucracy, no child left hungry.”

The bill is co-lead with Representatives Darren Soto (FL-9) and Brittany Pettersen (CO-7).

“Making sure every kid has access to a healthy meal at school reduces costs for families and ensures that every student has the ability to grow and thrive,” said Congresswoman Brittany Petterson (CO-7). “We’ve seen the impact free school meals have in Colorado, and we know this bill is a critical step toward supporting our families, both in and out of the classroom.” 

More than forty-seven million people in the United States face hunger. One in four Americans report skipping meals because they simply cannot afford their grocery bills. 

In New Jersey alone:

•  One in seven children faces food insecurity — not knowing where their next meal will come from.

•  More than 270,000 children rely on school meals for two meals a day, five days a week.

• In New Jersey, there are 812,966 SNAP recipients, including 436,452 households and 341,529 children.

•  63,000 people in Bergen County go hungry every day, including more than 30,000 children across Northern New Jersey.

•  More than 400,000 students received free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch last school year — with another 110,000 who qualify but still aren’t receiving meals.

Research shows that students who eat breakfast and lunch perform better in the classroom, have stronger memory recall, are less likely to be absent or repeat a grade, and have fewer behavioral and attention problems. Students who are properly nourished also have healthier lifelong diets and are less susceptible to obesity-related health issues. Additionally, studies show that addressing hunger reduces violent crime, making communities safer and stronger.

THE FEED OUR KIDS ACT

The Feed Our Kids Act would:

•  Provide free breakfast, lunch, and afterschool snacks to every student in K-12 public schools across America.

•  Eliminate unpaid meal debt from schools and remove burdensome application paperwork for qualifying families.

•  Ensure meals are nutritious and locally sourced when possible.

•  Extend meal access during summer break and sudden school closures so no child’s nutrition falls through the cracks.

•  Eliminate the stigma associated with means-tested meal programs by making access universal.

•  Provide Congress with a report on the impacts of free school meals and provide recommendations to ensure that schools are using nutritious meals that are locally sourced from farmers.

More than nine states already provide free school meals for all children — with more states, including those located in the Deep South, moving toward universal programs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, New Jersey’s shift to a universal school meal program drove a more than seventeen percent increase in math scores. When Republicans slashed those extra resources after the pandemic, fourth grade math scores fell by five points and eighth grade scores dropped by eight points.

“This is all common sense. We can’t let another day go by where a Jersey kid goes to school hungry. This shouldn’t be political. There is nothing red or blue about feeding our children,” Gottheimer said. “The Senate has a real opportunity to stop this insane plan and keep our hungry children and families fed.”

Gottheimer also announced two additional actions in response to the House Republicans’ Farm Bill — which he called the “One Big F’d Up Bill” — that would impose the largest SNAP cuts in the nation’s history:

• Gottheimer is sending a letter to the Administration demanding restoration of the Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement programs. The Administration’s cuts eliminated $1 billion in food assistance, costing New Jersey $26 million in previously committed funding that would have supported forty-six local farms and food producers, including eleven in NJ-5.
• Gottheimer is calling on the Senate to reverse devastating Farm Bill SNAP cuts that would require New Jersey to cover five percent of SNAP assistance — costing the state up to $100 million per year — and increase the state’s share of SNAP administrative costs from fifty percent to seventy-five percent, adding an additional $100 million annually. In total, the Farm Bill would add $200 million in new costs on New Jersey taxpayers. It would also cause more than four million Americans to lose their SNAP benefits, stripping their children of automatic eligibility for free school meals.

Gottheimer was joined by Hillsdale Mayor Michael Sheinfield, Hillsdale Councilman Chris Campp, Hillsdale Superintendent Robert Lombardy, Kevin Donatello, Hillsdale School Board President, Christine Higgins, Principal of Ann Blanche Smith School, Michael Jacobs, President of the NJ School Boards Association, Dr. Timothy Purnell, Executive Director/CEO of NJSBA, Jonathan Pushman, Senior Director of Advocacy of NJSBA, Sal Valenza from New Jersey School Nutrition Association, Lisa Pitz from Hunger Free New Jersey Executive Director, Beth Williams from Hunger Free America New York State Policy Director, Adele LaTourette, Senior Policy Advisor for Community Food Bank of New Jersey, and Joe Licata, Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club of Lower Bergen County.

Watch Congressman Gottheimer’s remarks here.

Watch additional remarks here.

Read Congressman Gottheimer’s full remarks below:

Good morning. It’s great to be here with so many friends and leaders at Ann Blanche Elementary School here in beautiful Hillsdale. You can’t propel a rocket without fuel — the same goes for a growing student. Our children are rockets preparing to take off toward successful lives and careers. But, they won’t reach their dreams without fuel in the tank.

Unfortunately, too many children in New Jersey are still showing up to school every morning with the tank reading on empty. They just aren’t getting the food and nutrition they need at home, and, with the costs of everything from gas to groceries way up, it’s just getting worse. More than forty-seven million people in the U.S. face hunger. One in four Americans say they’re skipping meals because they simply can’t afford their grocery bill. 

Believe it or not, in our state, one in seven children face food insecurity – they don’t know where their next meal will come from – it’s heartbreaking. And more than 270,000 children rely on school meals for two meals a day, five days a week. 63,000 people here in Bergen County go hungry every day – more than 30,000 children across Northern New Jersey. That’s unacceptable. Without school breakfast and school lunch, many of those kids wouldn’t have anything to eat at all. Those are tomorrow’s leaders. 

Yet, somehow, my colleagues on the far right in the House jammed through a Farm Bill last week that gutted critical funding for nutrition, including for school breakfast and school lunch. It’s unprecedented and dangerous. If the Senate passes it and the President signs this bill into law, more kids will go hungry. They won’t have the fuel in the tank here at school. 

Across our state, more than 400,000 students received free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch last school year – and another 110,00 qualify but still aren’t getting meals. The reason? Some schools, even with kids who need it, just don’t participate in the federal program – even though the meals are paid for by the federal government. They think it creates a stigma for their school, or they just don’t feel like dealing with the bureaucracy.

I’ve personally gone after many of them over the years, and check in with every superintendent annually to make sure they are taking care of hungry kids – especially when we are clawing back federal tax dollars to help our schools. In other cases, parents don’t know about the program or just don’t fill out the forms. Other schools give out lunch but not breakfast. None of these excuses are acceptable to me when a kid goes hungry.

Our state, under Assemblyman Dan Hutchison and Speaker Coughlin’s leadership and support, has a bill right now to provide universal school breakfast, so that all children are provided free meals regardless of whether students are federally eligible. And, under Commissioner Tracy Zur’s leadership, Bergen County has gone above and beyond, helping provide more than 160,000 pounds of food and provided more than $2 million in grants to local food pantries and community partners to help families in need.

The Farm Bill also locks in earlier devastating cuts to programs that help schools and food banks purchase fresh, locally sourced food, and leaves our farmers without proper support and funding. And, it made devastating cuts to the SNAP nutrition program, which provides families with the necessary funds to help buy groceries and improve nutrition. More than 430,000 families in New Jersey rely on SNAP. It makes no sense.

At a time when families are already struggling with skyrocketing gas, utility, and grocery costs, why would anyone take food away from kids and limit resources to help our next generation? It just seems cruel to me.

It just seems cruel to me.

The facts couldn’t be clearer: For those students who eat breakfast and lunch, we see better performance in the classroom and better opportunities after they graduate. On top of that, a grumbling stomach leads to decreased ability to focus, decreased physical activity, stomach aches, headaches, depression, and anxiety.

The numbers back this up. Studies show that students who skip breakfast make more errors, have slower memory recall, and are more likely to be absent, tardy, or repeat a grade. But students who eat meals at school are less likely to be hyperactive and have fewer behavioral and attention problems than their hungry peers. A Tufts University study also showed that elementary school students who eat breakfast listen better and have better short-term memory

than students who skip breakfast.

It’s not just good for grades — it’s good for their lifelong health and success. Students who aren’t hungry have better vitamin and nutrient intake, healthier overall diets, and are less susceptible to health issues brought on by obesity. Studies have also shown that when we address hunger, violent crime drops. By making sure everyone has enough to eat, we can make our state safer, healthier, and more successful.

Hunger doesn’t just hurt students; it hurts all of us.

That’s why I’m here today to sound the alarm and to announce new steps to protect our children, our families, and our farmers.

 First, I am introducing the new Feed Our Kids Act, which will provide free breakfast, lunch, and afterschool snacks to every student in public schools across America. It’s universal, so no kids will be left hungry – no stigma or bureaucracy in the way. It also ensures meals are nutritious, locally sourced when possible, and that schools reach families during summer break and sudden school closures, so that no child’s well-being, nutrition, and ability to succeed falls through the cracks.

To the naysayers who say why give to every student, I say: these meals are fine, but they aren’t exactly lunch from the Ritz Carlton. These programs are not new. More than nine states already provide free school meals for kids, and have been for years, with more states soon to pass universal programs, including ones in the Deep South. We have already seen how successful free school meals for students are, and how they end up saving schools a fortune by avoiding the red tape of operating a program that requires individual qualification.

During the pandemic, we went from our current program, which is bureaucratic and selective and leaves many kids out, to a universal program in our state. It worked. We saw hunger go down and test scores go up, including more than 17 percent in math scores just from feeding our kids! But then, after the pandemic, the far right slashed the extra resources for universal school meals, and more kids went hungry again. In 2022-23, 4th-grade math scores fell by 5 points, and 8th-grade scores dropped by 8 points.

My legislation will put back in place what was working – and make school meals universal. Itwill also eliminate unpaid meal debt from schools and application paperwork for all qualifying students and their parents to ease the barriers and reduce the stigma of free meals. 

Second, I am sending a follow-up letter to the Administration demanding that they restore the critical Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement programs that connect local farmers with our schools to provide fresh, locally grown food to our kids.

As I mentioned, in a draconian move, the Administration slashed a billion dollars of food assistance for these programs, hurting the most vulnerable in our communities and our food banks. New Jersey lost $26 million in previously committed funding that would have supported 46 local farms and food producers across our state — including eleven right here in my District. I simply don’t get it. These programs don’t just feed kids. They are also critical to supporting our local farmers and strengthening our economy. Cutting these programs hurts everyone.

Third, I am calling on the Senate to fix this broken version of the Farm Bill by reversing the largest SNAP cuts in our nation’s history that directly harm our most vulnerable families. The Farm Bill has an opportunity to save Jersey families millions of dollars, but the “One Big F’d Up Bill” puts those costs squarely on Jersey families. It will require New Jersey to cover 5 percent of SNAP assistance, costing Jersey up to $100 million per year, and increasing the state’s share of SNAP administrative costs from 50 percent to 75 percent. That will saddle Jersey and our counties with an additional $100 million each year to run the program.

You heard that right, in all, the Farm Bill will add $200 million of new costs on the backs of Jersey taxpayers! Adding insult to injury, if people get thrown off of SNAP – which more than 4 million people will with the new Farm Bill – families will no longer automatically qualify for free school meals, leaving kids hungry at home and at school. 

This farm bill is rotten to the core. But, here’s the good news: the Senate still has a real opportunity to reverse what the far right just jammed through the House, stop this insane plan, keep SNAP funded, and keep our hungry children and families fed.

As a member of the bipartisan Hunger Caucus, I’m helping to lead this fight against insanity in Washington. I’ve worked across the aisle to expand access to school meals and protect nutrition programs, including bills like the bipartisan “Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act,” which is now law, to provide milk in schools and ensure children receive the nutrition they need to grow, thrive, and succeed in the classroom.

This is all common sense. We can’t let another day go by where a Jersey kid goes to school hungry. This shouldn’t be political. There is nothing red or blue about feeding our children.

In the greatest country in the world, if we work together and put the health and success of our kids first, we can solve this problem, and I know that our best days will always be ahead of us.

Thank you. God bless you, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

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