New Jersey Assemblyman Avi Schnall (D-Lakewood) is pleased to announce a significant expansion in the free school lunch program for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year.
Thanks to an increase in income eligibility limits and federal changes, thousands of additional children across the state will now have access to free, nutritious meals at school.
Under the new provisions, the income eligibility limit has been raised from 199% of the federal poverty line to 224%. This crucial increase will allow many more families to qualify for free school lunches, ensuring that more children than ever before can receive the nutrition they need to succeed academically.
For the first time, students who attend private schools will also benefit from this expanded program. This inclusion marks a milestone in ensuring that all students, regardless of the type of school they attend, have access to the same opportunities for healthy meals.
In addition to these changes, any student who is eligible for Medicaid will now be automatically enrolled in the free school lunch program. This will streamline access to free meals for families, removing barriers and simplifying the process for those in need.
Moreover, the expanded eligibility will enable many schools to qualify for the Community Eligibility Program (CEP). Once a school reaches a certain threshold of students eligible for free lunches, the entire school will automatically qualify, ensuring that no child in that school is left without a meal. This not only provides broad relief to families but also eliminates the stigma often associated with receiving free lunches.
These important changes were made possible by legislation signed last year, and they have now been fully funded in this year’s state budget. Assemblyman Schnall worked diligently with fellow legislators and community advocates to ensure this expansion would become a reality for the 2024-2025 school year.
“I am thrilled to see the impact these changes will have on the well-being and academic success of children throughout our state,” said Assemblyman Schnall. “Access to healthy meals should never be a barrier to a child’s education, and this expansion will help ensure that every child, regardless of income or school, has the fuel they need to learn and thrive.”
The bill is an expansion of Working Class Families’ Anti-Hunger Act, which was signed into law last year, which expanded eligibility to families who earn up to 200% of the federal poverty level and now allows families earning up to 224% of the federal poverty level.
is this the tuition cut we were promised?
asking for a friend.
No.
That is still coming.
It is a long way away, but coming.
There are many minor steps along the way before they will actually happen.
The next major milestone along the way is to get the state to recalculate the funding formulas so they stop holding busing as leverage over it heads. (Yes that seems to have been an intentional play by the power brokers in Trenton possibly including the teachers union.)
Hatzlacha! That will be your single biggest accomplishment if you could pull it off Besiyata Dishamya.
IY”H Moshiach will already be here LONG BEFORE the pipe-dream of tuition relief would ever come to fruition. It was always pie-in-the-sky nonsense.
To Reb Schnall: Did you really need an (embarrassing) “D” after your name to get this bill passed? Answer: “NO”. I checked the voting record: it had virtually unanimous Republican support. I was a Democrat voter for over 40 years — until dreadful Obama became POTUS and destroyed the party, turning it into an immoral, leftist, power hungry, neo-fascist institution. You should disassociate from it immediately!
The d means nothing. Get over it. In other news can we get a voucher update? Asking for the mosdos
The D stands for abortion, toeiva and all the other shmutz in the streets.
It is dead and buried, never to be resurrected.
I was always taught, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
Someone is paying for this. I wonder who that could be….?
Middle class taxpayer’s like me. This is why I didn’t vote for Schnall.
Does this mean we don’t have to fill out the lunch forms?
NO
Thank You thank you! This is a lot of money for my family.
And a lot of money taken in taxes from mine!
No it won’t. Either you won’t be eligible, or your taxes will go up to pay for the expansion.
thanks avi. keep up the good work!
where can i see the new rates to see if I qualify?
If you work you don’t qualify.
Don’t most people realize that even if he’s successful at getting tuition cuts, the schools will simply up their tuition costs. Sure, they’ll need to pacify everyone the first year or so by deducting a small portion, but it’ll head right back up “rising tuition costs”.
Tuition won’t go down. the Democrats won’t allow the bill out of committee. Even if it gets out of committee, it won’t come for a vote on the floor. Like the self hating Jew Schumer did with the support Israel bill, he never allowed the Senate to vote on the bill. That’s the Democrat party way 100% of the time.
Mice die in mouse traps because they don’t understand why the cheese is free.
It’s the same with Socialism.
Remember… Ketchup is a vegetable.