Every Alabama child deserves access to breakfast 

• About 1 in 4 school-age children in Alabama struggle with food insecurity.
• Access to no-cost school meals is not the standard for many children in working families and is often determined by where they live.
• Many schools are struggling to break even with the current maximum federal reimbursement for school meals.

No-cost school breakfast helps families and communities thrive

• Since 2019, access to no-cost meals has doubled in Alabama. In that time, reading and math scores across the state have improved for children across all household income levels.
• No-cost school breakfast reduces the stigma associated with separating and sorting students by household income.
• Greater access to school meals helps improve student behavior and learning and reduces absenteeism.
• Streamlined funding for school breakfast reduces paperwork and administrative costs for local school districts.
• Continuing and increasing state investment in access to no-cost school breakfast supports local farmers and helps schools serve more local produce.

Bottom line

Every student deserves the resources they need to thrive in the classroom. Breakfast is an essential school supply, and lawmakers should appropriate the total funding necessary to fund no-cost breakfast fully for all children in Alabama public schools. Let’s support a strong start and a strong finish with no-cost breakfast for Alabama schools!