PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs visited the cafeteria at Madison Park Middle School in Phoenix Wednesday afternoon to highlight $6 million of state funding for school lunches.
The funding from the state budget will benefit two programs, as $3.8 million will go toward making 10 million reduced-price lunch meals free for students.
Another $2.1 million will go to SUN Bucks, a system that provides free meals during the summer when school lunches aren’t available.
While meeting with students and cafeteria staff, Hobbs stressed how important the funding is.
“We talked about how important having a good lunch at school is and how hard it is to learn if you don’t have a nutritious meal … one student who had brought lunch from home talked about helping his friend pay for lunch last year at school,” she said.
Madison School District Superintendent Kimberly Guerin said this will help many students who are already receiving reduced-price meals.
“There’s different thresholds in regards to supporting students and families with lunch feeding… And so, this legislation that passed actually covered all reduced-price meals, so that tier was swept into the free tier,” Guerin said. “So, all of those students get to eat for free.”
Ashley St. Thomas, the director of public policy for the Arizona Food Bank Network, expressed her appreciation for the governor’s efforts when it comes to feeding children.
“We know that one in five kids in the state doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from and so that’s why school meals and investing in them is a priority for us,” she said.
Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.
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