RELEASE: Gottheimer Slams Trump Administration’s Guts to School Meals Program for Children

Above: Gottheimer announcing action to protect school meal programs from cuts.

MAYWOOD, NJ — Today, March 17, 2025, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) joined local leaders at Memorial Elementary School to announce new steps in his “Stop School Hunger Plan,” which include new action and legislation to protect school meal programs from far-right extremists so that no child goes hungry. Gottheimer is fighting back against a new tax the Trump Administration is imposing on our families: a $1 billion cut in federal funding for fresh fruits and vegetables at schools and food banks, including a $26 million cut hurting Jersey children and families.

Video of today’s announcement can be found ​here.

Trump Administration’s Dangerous Cuts to School Meals: 

• Last week, the Trump Administration announced they were slashing more than $1 billion in federal funding provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for schools and food banks to purchase fresh, locally sourced food.
  • New Jersey is losing $26 million in previously committed funding that would have supported 46 local farms and food producers across the state — including 11 farms in New Jersey’s Fifth District alone.
  • $9.9 million cut for NJ from the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program. 
  • $16 million cut for NJ from the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement.
• The Administration’s cuts will gut school meal programs and help lead to higher local property taxes for hardworking Jersey families across the state.

Importance of School Meals: 

• According to Feeding America, more than 44 million people in the U.S. face hunger, including one in five children.
  • In Jersey, nearly 10% of the population is food insecure. 
• More than a quarter of Americans are skipping meals because they cannot afford their weekly grocery bill.
• Studies show that three out of five public school teachers have students who regularly come to class hungry.
  • Hunger in the classroom decreases a student’s ability to focus, worsens their physical activity, and causes stomach aches, headaches, depression, and anxiety.
  • A Tufts University study showed elementary school students who eat breakfast listen better and have better spatial memory and short-term memory than students who skip breakfast. 
  • Students who skip breakfast generally make more errors, have slower memory recall, and are more likely to be absent, tardy, and to repeat a grade.
• Food-insecure families spend $2,500 more a year for health care than families with enough to eat.
• Studies have shown that addressing hunger can lead to drops in violent crime.

Gottheimer’s Stop School Hunger Plan:

• This week, Gottheimer is sending a letter to the new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, urging the Administration to reverse these vicious cuts to school breakfast and lunch programs and demanding answers on why these cuts were made while stressing the disastrous impact they will have on Jersey children, families, and farmers.
• Gottheimer will introduce the Expanding Access to School Meals Act, which allows any child who qualifies for reduced meals to receive them at no cost.
  • This legislation also expands the poverty threshold for free school lunch from 130% to 224% of the federal poverty level — which Jersey currently does. 
• Gottheimer has long championed strengthening school meal programs so no child goes hungry:
  • Last Congress, Gottheimer helped introduce the No Hungry Kids in Schools Act, which would eliminate requirements to collect bureaucratic, hard-to-manage applications from individual households that prevent many children and families from receiving assistance.
    • Students will automatically qualify for assistance based on the needs determined by the State.
  • Last Congress, Gottheimer helped introduce the Universal School Meals Bill, which would provide meals to all schoolchildren, eliminate burdensome application paperwork, increase reimbursement rates for participating schools, and reduce the stigma associated with meal programs. 
  • During the pandemic, Gottheimer fought to claw back federal dollars to help feed children who were food insecure.
    • More than 9 million meals were provided in the Fifth District, compared to more than 6 million meals before the pandemic. 

“You can’t propel a rocket without fuel – the same goes for a growing student. They are rockets ready to take off to a successful life and career. Yet, the Trump Administration is slashing a billion dollars of food assistance for America’s children and the most vulnerable in our communities, which will lead to higher taxes on Jersey families. I simply don’t get it. Not only are far-right extremists sticking it to our farmers and the local economy, they are so dead set on cutting federal spending without a plan that they are willing to literally snatch fresh fruits and vegetables out of the mouths of hungry children. It’s shameless,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), a member of the Congressional Hunger Caucus. “There is nothing red or blue about feeding our children and educating the leaders of the future — it’s why school breakfast and lunch has always been a bipartisan issue. Not only is it the right thing to do for our children’s health and wellness, but they are key to our long-term competitiveness as a nation.”

Gottheimer was joined by Bergen County Commissioner Tracy Zur, Maywood Mayor Richard Bolan, Maywood Councilwoman Katherine Bennin, Maywood Councilman Douglas Herrick, Maywood Superintendent Michael Jordan, CFA Executive Director Nicole Davis, NJ School Nutrition Association Sal Valenza, Hunger Free America CEO Joel Berg, and Lisa Pitz of Hunger Free New Jersey.

Below: Gottheimer with local leaders at Memorial Elementary School in Maywood.

Gottheimer’s full remarks as prepared for delivery are below:

Good morning. It’s great to be here with so many friends and leaders at Memorial Elementary School in Maywood. You can’t propel a rocket without fuel — the same goes for a growing student. They are rockets preparing to take off to a successful life and career. But they won’t reach their dreams without fuel in the tank. 

Unfortunately, too many children in New Jersey are showing up at our schools every morning with the tank reading empty. It’s a nationwide problem, and we’re not immune. In fact, studies show that three out of five public school teachers say that students regularly come to school hungry. Every day, about 500,000 school age children in Jersey depend on school breakfast and lunch. 

It’s often the only time of day they get to eat, and, in many cases, the only time a child gets fresh fruit and vegetables. And I don’t mean ketchup, which technically qualifies as a vegetable in some school meals. I mean actual vegetables, like the ones you want your kids to eat so they grow up strong and healthy.

Yet, just this past week, in a shockingly heartless move, the Trump Administration announced they were gutting the school meals program, slashing federal funding at the U.S. Department of Agriculture that provides fresh, locally sourced fruits, vegetables, and food to schools and food banks. 

This includes fresh fruits and vegetables from 46 farms and food producers across our state — 11 farms in my District alone. New Jersey farms alone will lose 26 million dollars. With this draconian move, the Administration is slashing a billion dollars of food assistance for America’s children and the most vulnerable in our communities. I simply don’t get it.

Not only are far-right extremists sticking it to our farmers and the local economy, they are so dead set on cutting federal spending without a plan that they are willing to literally snatch food out of the mouths of hungry children. It’s shameless.

That’s why I’m here today, as part of my, Stop School Hunger Plan, to ensure that no child in New Jersey ever has to sit in a classroom hungry, focused only on how they might get their next meal instead of what’s on the blackboard.

The facts couldn’t be clearer: For those students who eat breakfast and lunch, we see much better performance in the classroom, and they perform much better when they graduate. Hunger in the classroom leads to a decreased ability to focus, decreased physical activity, stomach aches, headaches, depression, and anxiety. 

Studies show that students who skip breakfast generally make more errors, have slower memory recall, and are more likely to be absent, tardy, and repeat a grade. Meanwhile, 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 elementary school students who eat breakfast listen better and have better spatial memory and short-term memory than students who skip breakfast. Students who aren’t hungry have better vitamin and nutrient intake, healthier overall diets, and less susceptibility to obesity.

According to Feeding America, more than forty-four million people in the U.S. face hunger, including one in five children. Here in Jersey, nearly ten percent of our state’s population is food insecure. More than a quarter of Americans say they’re skipping meals because they simply can’t afford their grocery bill. That’s especially true in this environment of surging food prices, that’s made it extra hard to afford food on the table. Egg prices are still up 53% from where they were a year ago, up ten percent from January this year. The USDA predicts that egg prices will continue to rise 41% more this year. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, beef prices are up ten percent since last year and are expected to rise even more. 

Food insecurity doesn’t just lead to poorer health. Food-insecure families spend $2,500 more a year for health care than families with enough to eat. And these statistics just scratch the surface: food insecurity is a public safety issue. Studies have 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.

That’s why today, I’m sounding the alarm on the Administration’s draconian cuts that will hurt our children, and I’m announcing new steps to strengthen the school meals program, and protect Jersey students and families.

First, no child in our District should start their days hungry — and fail in school — because we fail to act. We can’t let a single child go hungry. I’m sending a letter to the new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, urging the Administration to reverse these vicious cuts to school breakfast and lunch programs, and to stress the disastrous impact they will have on Jersey children, families, and farmers.

Second, we know that many families who can afford school meals never sign up because the paperwork is too confusing or burdensome, or they can’t even afford the reduced meals price. Too often, some schools don’t provide any meals, even if some kids qualify. Either they don’t like the stigma of having kids on the school meals program — or they don’t want to deal with the administrative burden of signing kids up — even though it’s fully paid for by our tax dollars.

That’s why, last Congress, I helped introduce the No Hungry Kids in Schools Act to streamline the school meal program with less paperwork — eliminating requirements to collect bureaucratic, hard to manage applications from individual households that prevent so many from receiving assistance. Schools will instead automatically qualify based on the needs determined by the State. That’s how we increase efficiency to ensure fewer children go hungry — not by haphazardly cutting programs that help our families.

The Universal School Meals Bill we are also planning to introduce will provide meals to all schoolchildren, if any kids in the school qualifies; it will eliminate burdensome and costly application paperwork for parents and students, and help reduce the stigma associated with meal programs. Before the pandemic, there were more than six million meals provided to students in need across the Fifth District. So, I fought tooth and nail to help claw back our federal dollars to help feed our children who needed it. And, during the pandemic, more than nine million meals were provided — a substantial increase, showing that we are capable of providing school meals for all.

If the administration goes ahead and guts the school lunch program, and takes food out of the mouhts of hungry children so that they don’t perform as well, this will not just be a tax on them personally, but this will be an additional tax on New Jersey. Because, were not going to not feed our kids, so that means someone’s going to have to make up the difference. It’s going to result in this Administration raising taxes on Jersey families by leaving this huge gap.

Finally, I’m announcing new legislation, the Expanding Access to School Meals Act, to allow any child who qualifies for reduced meals to receive them at no cost. New Jersey has already done this, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be a national priority. My legislation also expands the poverty threshold for free school lunch from 130 percent to 224 percent of the federal poverty level — which Jersey currently does. 

We can’t just let another day go by and another child go hungry in the morning. With the tremendous benefits that science tells us eating breakfast provides for our children, shouldn’t we be doing everything possible to ensure that no child is hungry in school and that they can achieve their full potential? New Jersey has some of the best schools in the country, and providing our children the resources they deserve to succeed is critical. 

There is nothing red or blue about feeding our children and educating the leaders of the future — it’s why school breakfast and lunch has always been a bipartisan issue. And the Hunger Caucus, which I’m a member of, is bipartisan for a reason. This is all common sense. Not only is it the right thing to do for our children’s health and wellness, but they are key to our long-term competitiveness as a nation. In the greatest country in the world, if we work together, and put the health 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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