The New Jersey state Assembly Education Committee advanced legislation that would require the New Jersey Department of Agriculture to create online applications for school meal programs.

“Ensuring easy access to nutritious meals is essential for the well-being of our students,” said Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-Bergen, Passaic), who sponsored the bill along with Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, and Robert J. Karabinchak.

In addition to legislatively creating the online school meal programs applications, the bill also requires school districts to make every effort to ensure that income-eligible students are not recognized as program participants. These efforts could include, but are not limited to, the establishment of a meal plan or voucher system under which the students receiving subsidized breakfasts are not distinguished from students receiving non-subsidized breakfasts.

The legislation would require schools to provide paper applications as they also begin to offer them online while also publicizing the availability of the programs to parents and students.

Under the bill, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture would create the online applications in consultation with the state’s Department of Education.

This legislation is the latest in a series of actions the state Legislature has taken to combat food insecurity, particularly hunger faced by New Jersey students during the course of their school days.

Earlier this year, Governor Murphy signed a bill expanding the income eligibility for the free lunch program and, following the successful advocacy of Agudath Israel’s New Jersey office, now ensures that non-public schools participating in federal lunch and breakfast programs are included, adding an additional 60,000 families that were previously ineligible.

In addition, eligible students in New Jersey will now be eligible to receive permanent food assistance during the summer months when schools are closed, beginning this summer.