New grants will help public schools provide nutritious school breakfast to more children to support their health, development and learning

Governor Cooper Directs $1.4 Million to Expand School Breakfast Programs

New grants will help public schools provide nutritious school breakfast to more children to support their health, development and learning

RALEIGH: Today, Governor Roy Cooper announced that he is directing $1.4 million in federal funding to assist schools in expanding school breakfast programs. The funds will be used to provide grants to school districts and charter schools to assist with implementing innovative school breakfast models to expand student participation in school breakfast. The Governor is partnering with the North Carolina Alliance for Health (NCAH) and the Carolina Hunger Initiative (CHI) on the program. The Governor made this announcement at Glenn Elementary School in Durham where he served students breakfast in their classroom and spoke with teachers and cafeteria staff.

“A child who is hungry can’t learn and many children can’t or won’t eat when they have to get up so early,” said Governor Cooper. “Innovative efforts that get breakfast to children in the classroom are proven to encourage them to eat which will improve their educational success.”

“We are grateful for the opportunity to support school nutrition programs in implementing innovative school breakfast models,” said Morgan Wittman Gramann, executive director of NCAH. “We can all agree that no child should go hungry and we all benefit when every child has access to the nutrition they need to reach their full potential.”

“School meals are an instructional intervention,” said Lou Anne Crumpler, Director of the Carolina Hunger Initiative. “From reducing chronic absenteeism to improving reading achievement, small changes to how school breakfast is served can make big impacts on student success. In recent years, more than 60 percent of NC’s public-school students were eligible for free and reduced-price school meals, showing the big difference these programs make on children in need.”

NCAH and CHI will use the funds to administer a competitive grant program that will provide grants of up to $50,000 per school nutrition program to assist in implementing innovative school breakfast models, such as Breakfast in the Classroom, Second Chance Breakfast, and Grab and Go Breakfast. These innovative school breakfast models have been shown to increase school breakfast participation, especially among students who qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch. The more than 600 schools that are offering free school breakfast and lunch to all students for the first time during the 2023-24 school year through the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program will be given priority for the grants. The federal Community Eligibility Provision program subsidizes free meals for all students in schools with high percentages of low-income and at-risk students. NCAH and CHI will also be providing technical assistance to grant recipients focused on effective ways for implementing school breakfast programs. 

Research shows that eating a healthy school breakfast and lunch improves student attendance, discipline, and academic performance, and this investment is part of the Governor’s ongoing commitment to ensuring all students have access to a sound basic education. The Governor included in his 2023-25 budget proposal recurring funding to offset the co-pays for students eligible for reduced-price lunches in schools participating in the National School Lunch Program. The Governor also proposed a pilot program that provides funding to assist eligible schools in participating in the federal Community Eligibility Provision program, which will help more students receive free school breakfast and lunch. Both of those programs were funded in House Bill 259, the final version of the State budget. 

Funding for this initiative is from federal Emergency Assistance for Non-Public Schools (EANS) funds that have reverted to the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund.

For the latest information on this grant program, please visit CarolinaHungerInitiative.org.

The North Carolina Alliance for Health is an independent, nonpartisan, statewide coalition that convenes, mobilizes, supports, and empowers partners to advance equitable policies that reduce health disparities, prevent chronic disease, and promote health. NCAH serves on the leadership team for School Meals for All NC, which is working to ensure that every child in every public school in NC has access to breakfast and lunch at school at no cost to their families. Learn more at ncallianceforhealth.org.

The Carolina Hunger Initiative’s mission is to increase access to healthy food year-round for North Carolinians. We use programming, applied research, and compelling communications to support policy, systems, and environmental changes that connect people with the food they need. CHI is based at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Learn more at CarolinaHungerInitiative.org.

The grant application opens on Wednesday, November 1.

Click here to read more about the formation of this grant opportunity.

North Carolina State Budget Released, Includes NCAH Priorities

After months of negotiations, the NC General Assembly released the conference report for the budget on Wednesday afternoon. The budget appropriates $29,707,123,024 in the first year of the biennium and $30,823,313,998 in the second year of the biennium and includes a number of NCAH’s top priorities!

• Promote increased and recurring appropriations for robust and evidence-based tobacco prevention and cessation programs and services – $11,250,000 in nonrecurring funds in each year of the biennium from the State’s settlement with JUUL Labs, Inc. for evidence-based electronic cigarette and nicotine dependence prevention and cessation activities targeting students in grades 4 through 12
• Promote policies that increase access to healthy food in schools and childcare centers, such as school meals for all and farm-to-school policies – $3 million in recurring funds plus an additional $3 million in nonrecurring funds in the first year of the biennium to permanently eliminate the reduced-price lunch copay 
• Support policies and appropriations for increasing access to care, including closing the health insurance coverage gap and increasing access to mental health services – Provides the NC Department of Health and Human Services authority to request approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the state to expand Medicaid

The House and Senate will vote on the budget on Thursday and Friday.

Additional provisions and appropriations related to NCAH’s priorities include:

Commercial Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation

• Changes the method of taxing snuff from cost-based to weight-based
• Adds a base tax for “alternative nicotine products” of 10 cents per container containing up to 20 units and ½ cent per unit for every unit over 20

Access to Healthy Food

• $500,000 in recurring funds beginning in 23-24 and $6.3 million in recurring funds beginning in 24-25 for a CEP pilot to support schools and districts in participating in CEP. The funding is limited to schools that are not participating in CEP this fiscal year, and the language directs DPI to prioritize schools with ISPs above 55 and that will maximize federal funding
• Language that prohibits schools from withholding student records or keeping students from participating in graduation due to school meal debt
• $6,100,000 in nonrecurring funds in each year of the biennium for the food banks
• $2,000,000 in nonrecurring funds in each year of the biennium for the Conservation Fund for its NC Food Hub Collaborative to support the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of locally sourced food to customers

Active Living

• $3,500,000 in nonrecurring funds for the Youth Outdoor Engagement Commission for Go Outside grants
• $12,500,000 in nonrecurring funds in each year of the biennium for the Great Trails Fund
• $5,000,000 in nonrecurring funds in the first year of the biennium for the Complete the Trails Fund

Cross-Cutting

• $2,500,000 in nonrecurring funds for Rural Healthcare Initiative, Inc. to create effective models of sustainable healthcare for North Carolina rural communities
• $4,849,573 in nonrecurring funds in the first year of the biennium and $6,341,179 in nonrecurring funds in the second year of the biennium for the North Carolina Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, Inc. to support member clinics that provide health care for the uninsured and underinsured
• $600,000 in nonrecurring funds in each year of the biennium for Mt. Calvary Leadership Development Corporation, Inc. to support the development and implementation of the Community Health Workers Outreach Program
• $14,667,000 in nonrecurring funds in each year of the biennium for federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics
• $2,957,566,000 in recurring funds in the first year of the biennium and $4,364,504,000 in recurring funds in the second year of the biennium to increase Medicaid managed care hospital reimbursements
• $120,000,000 in nonrecurring funds in each year of the biennium for Medicaid transformation projects, contracts, and information technology needs.
• $15,600,000 to fund $50,000 grants to each local health department for the delivery of essential public health services
• An additional $250,000 in recurring funds to support the grant program that provides feminine hygiene products for students
• $100,000 in nonrecurring funds in each year of the biennium for North Carolina Housing Coalition, Inc. to fund programs and services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness
• $158,275 in nonrecurring funds in each year of the biennium for North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness, Inc. to fund programs and services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness
• $35,000,000 in nonrecurring funds in each year of the biennium to assist with the development of multi-family affordable housing units across the state

You can read the committee report here and the bill text here.