{"id":7638,"date":"2023-01-12T09:38:50","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T17:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/nobles\/?p=7638"},"modified":"2023-01-12T09:48:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T17:48:36","slug":"riccelli-nobles-introduce-free-school-meals-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/nobles\/2023\/01\/12\/riccelli-nobles-introduce-free-school-meals-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Riccelli, Nobles Introduce Free School Meals Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OLYMPIA \u2013 All K-12 students in Washington state would have access to free breakfast and lunch under proposed legislation introduced today by Sen. T\u2019wina Nobles (D-Fircrest) and Rep. Marcus Riccelli (D-Spokane). The <a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary?BillNumber=1238&amp;Year=2023\">Washington Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary?BillNumber=1238&amp;Year=2023\">HB 1238<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary?BillNumber=5339&amp;Year=2023\">SB 5339<\/a>) would require all schools to provide free breakfast and lunch, and would define school meals as part of basic education. That distinction means that the state would be constitutionally required to provide funding for meals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccess to nutritious food is a key component to the health and wellbeing of children,\u201d said Riccelli. \u201cHungry kids can\u2019t learn and by providing meals to any student who wants one, we\u2019re taking an effective and meaningful step toward ensuring that children won\u2019t go hungry in our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the bill, meals are provided to any student who requests one. This will end the stigma of \u201cfree lunch\u201d that exists in public schools, leading to greater access to meals and eliminate the shame some students feel for utilizing the existing free-and-reduced price lunch program. All 1.1 million Washington students will have the same access to school meals, something that significantly reduced childhood hunger during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStudent success cannot be limited by a family\u2019s ability to afford food. To advance student\u2019s chances at success, we need to make investments, especially into their most basic needs,\u201d said Nobles. \u201cAs a mom and a former educator, I know hunger can be a barrier to education, and students can\u2019t learn when they\u2019re hungry. This legislation will ensure that our students\u2019 attention will be on their education and not on where their next meal is coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Legislators have been improving Washington\u2019s school breakfast and lunch program over the last decade by passing Breakfast After the Bell in 2018 (<a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary?BillNumber=1508&amp;Initiative=false&amp;Year=2017\">HB 1508<\/a>), requiring more schools to participate in the USDA Community Eligibility Program (CEP) in 2020 (<a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary?BillNumber=2660&amp;Year=2019\">HB 2660<\/a>), and providing funding to more schools required to participate in CEP as recently as 2022 (<a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary?BillNumber=1878&amp;Initiative=false&amp;Year=2021\">HB 1878<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OLYMPIA \u2013 All K-12 students in Washington state would have access to free breakfast and lunch under proposed legislation introduced today by Sen. T\u2019wina Nobles (D-Fircrest) and Rep. Marcus Riccelli (D-Spokane). The Washington Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act (HB 1238\/SB 5339) would require all schools to provide free breakfast and lunch, and would define school meals as part of basic education. That distinction means that the state would be constitutionally required to provide funding for meals. \u201cAccess to nutritious food is a key component to the health and wellbeing of children,\u201d said Riccelli. \u201cHungry kids can\u2019t learn and by providing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":7639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-release"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Riccelli, Nobles Introduce Free School Meals Bill - Sen. T\u2019wina Nobles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/nobles\/2023\/01\/12\/riccelli-nobles-introduce-free-school-meals-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Riccelli, Nobles Introduce Free School Meals Bill - Sen. T\u2019wina Nobles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OLYMPIA \u2013 All K-12 students in Washington state would have access to free breakfast and lunch under proposed legislation introduced today by Sen. T\u2019wina Nobles (D-Fircrest) and Rep. Marcus Riccelli (D-Spokane). The Washington Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act (HB 1238\/SB 5339) would require all schools to provide free breakfast and lunch, and would define school meals as part of basic education. That distinction means that the state would be constitutionally required to provide funding for meals. \u201cAccess to nutritious food is a key component to the health and wellbeing of children,\u201d said Riccelli. \u201cHungry kids can\u2019t learn and by providing...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/nobles\/2023\/01\/12\/riccelli-nobles-introduce-free-school-meals-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sen. 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