• Many students who need it are not eligible 
• Students who do qualify may face shaming, bullying and even debt 

However, it’s still been a helpful program to make sure students have access to a healthy meal each school day, helping students concentrate and improve academically. 

School Meals Became Universal During the Pandemic 

During the pandemic, it became obvious that families were getting hit hard with food insecurity, or lack of access to healthy food. Helpful programs like Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) were created to fight this by covering the cost of lost school meals. Another incredible change was that school lunches temporarily became “universal”, meaning that any child could get a school meal. 

Communities have shared that this works better than the old tiered system of free, reduced-price, and paid lunches. By allowing all students to access meals without needing to apply, Healthy School Meals for All is a program that supports student well-being, reduces administrative costs, eliminates lunch debt, and removes shame and stigma from the lunchroom. 

We Want This to Continue Beyond the Pandemic 

If programs are working, let’s make sure they become permanent so we can continue improving school meals and making Colorado a great place for our students. 

Jessica Wright from Nourish Colorado says, “Every child deserves access to a meal while they are required to be in school. Eliminating the need to collect meal applications will free up time for our school meal programs to better meet the needs of their student population and it also provides their parents the opportunities to direct their limited time and resources towards supporting their child in other ways.” 

Healthy School Meals for All is an investment in children’s education — just like textbooks are a given part of school, food is part of the learning process as well.

Hunger Free Colorado and many across Colorado are supporting SB22-087, a bill that will continue healthy meals for all public school students. We ask that you support this, too! 

How can you take action? 

If you want to help make this happen, join our coalition today and receive email updates on the bill and ways to support! 

Join the coalition here: HSMA Coalition Sign Up or reach out directly to your legislators here: Get Healthy School Meals for All through the Senate! 

During the 2022 Legislative Session, Hunger Free Colorado will advocate for policies that strengthen an equitable food system and ensure all Coloradans can access the nutrition they need in their communities. While we will be supporting our partners as they work on legislation to address Coloradans’ basic needs and well-being through cash assistance, housing reform, and more, our main focus this session will be on three key anti-hunger policies:

1. Create a Path to Healthy School Meals for All Colorado Children

Children need nutritious food to focus in school, stay healthy and support their well-being. Currently, all schools are temporarily able to provide school meals to any child who needs them as part of COVID-19 federal aid. Colorado should make this temporary option permanent and help thousands of children access the food they need learn, grow and thrive every day at school. Investing in healthy school meals for all is an investment in strengthening communities, reducing administrative costs, eliminating lunch debt, removing shame and stigma from the lunchroom, freeing up resources for schools and staff and supporting student well-being. Want to join us to pass and fund a community-informed policy to create school meals for all children in Colorado public schools? Sign up to join our coalition!

2. Extend the Food Pantry Assistance Grant Program for five years

The Food Pantry Assistance Grant Program has provided a lifeline to food pantries, food banks, and Colorado producers throughout the pandemic. The grants go to direct emergency food providers like food pantries and food banks to allow them to purchase products from local producers. Furthermore, up to 20 percent of the grants can be used by pantries to invest in other needs including fridges and transportation. These funds help pantries provide foods that their communities most want and need but that can be hard for these operations to supply, like fresh produce, dairy, and proteins. Hunger Free Colorado is working with a coalition of food pantries, food banks, growers, and food systems navigators to extend and strengthen this program for another five years. The proposed legislation this session will extend the program for five years using federal and state funds and support local procurement through technical assistance and better aligning grant cycles with the growing season. This will help Colorado community-based organizations to continue their response to the historic hunger crisis caused by COVID-19, while also fostering relationships between food pantries and local agriculture for years to come, fueling health for Colorado families relying on pantries for nutrition, and supporting a more equitable food system. Join the Food Pantry Assistance Grant Legislation coalition and sign onto the bill fact sheet by filling out this form!

3. Sustainably Fund the SNAP Outreach Program in the state budget

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides grocery EBT benefits to low-income households and serves as the first line of defense against hunger for many families facing financial crisis. Colorado’s SNAP Outreach Program works with more than 50 community-based organizations to connect eligible households to food assistance, provide education and information on SNAP, and assist with enrollment. This is crucial, as about 40 percent of low-income Coloradans do not access the program due to barriers to enrollment that outreach can help mitigate. SNAP outreach also makes good financial sense. What the state invests in SNAP outreach services is matched dollar for dollar by the federal government. SNAP outreach also fuels economic recovery as families connected to SNAP receive federal money for food that they quickly spend in their local communities. By our estimates, in Federal Fiscal Year 2020 every state dollar invested in SNAP outreach brought $14 to Colorado families in the form of federal food benefits to help purchase groceries, with an economic stimulus impact of $21! We must fund SNAP outreach in the state budget at $1.5 million to continue the important support the program provides as COVID-19 continues to disproportionately impact low-income families and communities of color. This increase of $500,000 will maintain current funding levels since the program has experienced a recent loss of private dollars. Complete this form to add your organization as a supporter of the SNAP Outreach funding request!

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You can help us pass these crucial policies! Sign up for our email advocacy list for legislative updates and to learn when there are opportunities to weigh in on these and other policies that impact Coloradans facing hunger.

Increase SNAP Outreach Funding (with a Focus on the Enrollment of Eligible Students)

All increases in funding from State-supported outreach and the private sector will receive a 100% federal match for the enrollment of eligible, school-age community members and their families struggling with hunger.

Only 6 out of 10 eligible Coloradans utilize SNAP. This gap represents a huge loss of federal dollars in benefits (in the hundreds of millions) that could support our local communities, especially in rural Colorado.

One of the Governor’s Wildly Important Goals for this upcoming state fiscal year is to utilize SNAP outreach partners to increase the enrollment of eligible Coloradans in SNAP with a particular focus on Colorado’s students, which aligns with the Governor’s proposed Roadmap to Make College More Affordable.

Support Colorado’s Emergency Food Providers and Local Producers

Colorado’s low-income families, agricultural sector and local food systems will all benefit from increased funding, on an annual basis, for the Food Pantry Assistance Grant. This legislation will ensure more Colorado families have access to the nutritious food needed to reach their full potential and provide a critical revenue source for our local farmers, ranchers and producers.

The Colorado Food Pantry Assistance Grant provides funds for food pantries and food banks to purchase high quality produce, meat and dairy from Colorado Proud farmers and ranchers. The first year of the program (2018) was a great success, with $500,000 in grants awarded to 94 food pantries and food banks across the state. The allocated funding, however, did not come close to fulfilling the nearly $3 million in funding applications. And despite the documented need, the state only allocated $100,000 in 2019.

Expand Additional Healthy Food Incentive Programs

Our state needs to stand behind proven programs like Double Up Food Bucks and the Produce Box Program that are a win-win for hungry Colorado families and rural producers throughout the state. These health incentive programs are proven to support positive health and food security outcomes because they allow consumers to purchase more healthy foods.

Double Up Food Bucks can quintuple the number of SNAP participants shopping at farmers markets by providing a dollar-to-dollar match (up to $20) for using these funds to purchase healthy foods at the market.

The Produce Box Program purchases community supported agriculture shares (CSAs) from farmers to provide food for families with low incomes. In 2019, this program purchased over 500 farm shares from Colorado producers.

Want to help make these policies a reality? Join us on Hunger Action Day (3/4/2020) and join our action network to get updates!

I’m not going to lie; I’m worried. I’m worried for our hungry neighbors. In these uncertain times, we need you more than ever to stand up and shake off your hesitation to be advocates. The stakes are too high for us to be passive bystanders.

I need you to show up at “Hungry for Change: Day at the Capitol” on Tuesday, Feb. 7. (More info below.) And, bring your friends and volunteers, your staff and boards, your community of faith. Heck, bring along your long-lost uncle, but just show up.

Yes, I know it’s an early morning. But you can do this! I’ll even buy you coffee and breakfast if you’re there on time. We start this early because of the legislature’s schedule.

Yes, I know you wonder if one person showing up will make any difference. But it does. I promise. Your presence will show our elected officials that there are allies standing alongside our hungry neighbors and that we not only care about hunger, but are paying attention to how they vote on issues that impact those experiencing hunger.

Yes, I know you feel apprehensive about “lobbying” or “advocating.” But, if not you, then who? Every time we try something new, it can be a bit scary, but I’m telling you, this is simple. All you need is concern about the issue of hunger. That’s it.

So, can your hungry neighbors and I count you in? If so, make sure to RSVP. I’ll see you there!

Best,
Kathy Underhill
CEO
Hunger Free Colorado

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Hungry for Change: Day at the Capitol
Tuesday, February 7 @ 7:30 – 10:30 a.m.
Colorado State Capitol
200 E. Colfax Ave.
Denver, CO 80203
RSVP Online Today!
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