October 21, 2013

CCC Helps Launch the Lunch 4 Learning Campaign

CCC staff and volunteers joined advocates, elected officials, union members and parents to launch the Lunch 4 Learning Campaign. Lunch 4 Learning is a campaign calling upon the next mayor to make school lunches universally free for all New York City public school students.

As part of the launch, the campaign sent thousands of petition signatures to the mayoral candidates, demonstrating the community support for universal free school lunches. CCC and the Lunch 4 Learning Campaign are grateful to all those who helped gather petition signatures, including the CCC volunteers who gathered over 1,000 signatures!

Right now, the school lunch program is underutilized in New York City, even though one in four New York City children come from homes without enough food. While over 75 percent of New York City’s 1.1 million public school students come from families with incomes low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price school meals, more than 400,000 children do not participate in the program.

Some students do not participate because they worry about the stigma associated with being labeled the “poor kid” who eats school lunch. Also, some income-eligible children are not enrolled in the program because their parents do not submit the required paperwork. If school lunch becomes free for all, the stigma and paperwork will be eliminated, participation in this valuable program will increase, and more NYC children will eat nutritionally sound lunches.

Read more about the Lunch 4 Learning campaign, and support our efforts to ensure all public school students can eat a healthy lunch at no cost!

Tags
lunch 4 learning, universal school lunch, Economic Security

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