Learn more about healthy school meals for all, including the policy’s history, which states have adopted it, and how healthy school meals for all can support equitable food access, reduce stigma, and promote nutritious eating.

New York joins eight other states in guaranteeing healthy school meals for all

In 2025, New York extended access to free school meals to all students. In doing so, New York joined eight other states that guarantee healthy school meals for all students: California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont. These states are leading the growing movement to guarantee that all students receive no-cost nutritious school meals to reduce the economic burden on families and schools, address the shaming and stigma associated with school meals, and improve nutrition to foster a productive learning environment.

Healthy school meals for all 101

Healthy school meals for all—also known as universal free school meals—is a policy that allows all enrolled children in a school that operates the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program to receive free breakfast and free lunch, regardless of their family’s income. Healthy school meals for all negate the need for families to apply or schools to verify eligibility for these programs and give flexibility to school nutrition programs so that they can focus on what is more important—feeding kids healthy and delicious meals.

What is the Community Eligibility Provision?

Individual schools or districts may offer healthy school meals for all via the federal Community Eligibility Provision, which allows individual schools, groups of schools, and local educational agencies to provide free meals to all students if at least 25 percent of their students are income-eligible for free meals (known as their Identified Student Population, or ISP). State-level healthy school meals for all policies build on the Community Eligibility Provision by allowing all schools, regardless of their ISP, to offer healthy school meals for all.

A brief history of school meals

The National School Lunch Program was established in 1946 to improve children’s health in the US and support families by providing low and no-cost meals to qualifying students. The School Breakfast Program followed as a pilot project in 1966 and was made permanent in 1975. Today, the National School Lunch Program is the nation’s second-largest federal feeding program, behind the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program are administered by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) at the federal level and state agencies (i.e., departments of education or agriculture) at the state level. The USDA sets eligibility criteria based on household income for students to receive free or reduced-priced meals. School food authorities that run school nutrition programs receive federal funding based on the number of free, reduced-priced, and/or paid meals served to students. They may also receive additional state and local funding.

The USDA previously offered waivers for healthy school meals for all, but this program expired

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly 30 million children participated in the school meals program every day, and most of those children (almost 80 percent) were from households with low income. When schools closed in the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic, there was a real concern that millions of children would lose access to a primary source of nutritious meals and that the loss of school breakfast and lunch would increase those children’s risk of becoming food insecure.

In response, the USDA issued a series of temporary waivers for school food programs, one of which allowed schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to every student regardless of family income. Yet Congress allowed these waivers to expire in the summer of 2022. In the absence of these waivers, several states have instituted healthy school meals for all statewide.

What are the benefits of providing healthy school meals for all students?

Healthy school meals for all can promote equitable food access, support schools, reduce the stigma associated with school meal participation, and encourage nutritious eating–which can improve academic performance. It’s simple: Hungry kids can’t learn.

Equitable access to food

Healthy school meals for all can make school meals more equitable by providing assurance that all children will receive free meals at school, even if their family income fluctuates in and out of typical eligibility requirements for free meals. Additionally, many children fall through the cracks of free school meal eligibility, including children who are experiencing homelessness, have recently immigrated, have caregivers who may struggle with administrative paperwork, or are in foster care. Healthy school meals for all ensure that these children will receive meals at school.

The policy also provides economic support for struggling families who currently do not qualify for free- or reduced-price school meals. To qualify to receive free school meals, a student’s family income must be at or below 130% of the federal poverty level (or $41,800 for a family of four in school year 2025-2026). Nonetheless, many non-qualifying families struggle to shoulder the costs of school meals. Healthy school meals for all can save families money by providing children with two nutritious, no-cost meals a day at school.

States that have implemented healthy school meals for all have seen reduced childhood hunger. Reducing hunger and improving food security through healthy school meals for all can, in turn, increase academic performance.

Support for schools

Healthy school meals for all can help reduce the administrative burden on school food service staff and provide a steady budget for school food service programs, so they may remain fiscally solvent. Currently, insufficient and fluctuating funding is a barrier to operating school meal programs effectively. With steady revenue from healthy school meals for all, programs can focus on their primary function: feeding children healthy meals. And when all students eat free, it prevents unpaid meal debt from accruing, taking pressure off school food service programs to increase revenue by serving foods that may be lower in nutritional quality.

Reducing stigma

In addition, healthy school meals for all can help reduce the stigma and shame associated with participation in school meals by ensuring that all students have consistent access to free meals. And by removing the issue of school meal debt, healthy school meals for all can eliminate draconian measures schools may take to feed children who cannot pay (which have been outlawed in some states but still remain in others). When all students have access to free meals, perceptions of bullying and fighting decrease, and kids who previously were income-eligible for free- or reduced-priced meals feel safer.

School meals are healthy (and are about to get healthier)

School meals are one of the healthiest sources of food for nearly 30 million American kids, some of whom get as much as half their daily calories at school. Food consumed at school tends to be a high quality source of food for kids compared to meals consumed from other sources, including grocery stores and restaurants.

The nutritional quality of school meals has improved significantly as a result of updated nutrition standards following passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. However, school meals still have room for improvement. For one, school meals, particularly school breakfasts, are often too high in added sugars.

But school meals will soon align more closely with the science-based recommendations of the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. In April 2024, the USDA issued its 2024 Final Rule Requirements for School Meal Programs. The rule established the first-ever added sugar limits for school meals and updated sodium standards, among other changes. The meal pattern changes will begin to take effect starting in school year 2025-26 and will be phased in through school year 2027-28. The rule represents a significant step toward science-backed nutrition standards in US schools.

Aligning school meal nutrition standards with science-backed guidelines will improve the healthfulness of foods and beverages served in schools, which in turn could help kids form lifelong healthy eating habits. Additionally, research shows that aligning school foods with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans could improve kids’ health, reduce their risk of developing chronic diseases, and lower US health care costs.

Threats to school meal progress

Recent actions by the Trump administration and Congress have implications for access to school meals. The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act reduced funds across many programs, including SNAP. The legislation cuts eligibility to SNAP, in turn leaving fewer children automatically eligible for school meals (via SNAP). This impacts children’s access to school meals in states without healthy school meals for all policies, and in states that rely on federal funding to supplement their healthy school meals for all policies, it could result in higher costs for the state.

How you can help

For years, CSPI has worked with state and local advocates across the country to pass policies to improve the nutritional quality of and increase access to school meals. Additionally, CSPI is a coalition partner of healthy school meals for all campaigns in nearly a dozen states. Support our work today.