Full Plates Full Potential, Maine’s only statewide childhood hunger organization
is proud to announce legislative victories in Augusta this session.
Full Plates Full Potential and our coalition including: No Kid Hungry, Good Shepherd Food Bank, Preble Street, Maine Children’s Alliance, Maine Principals Association, 5210 Let’s Go!, Maine SNAP-Ed, Catholic Charities Maine, Maine Equal Justice and Maine Credit Union League worked tirelessly to pass our priority policies.
“Governor Janet Mills, Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, Maine House Speaker Sarah Gideon and the entire legislature passed the most significant child hunger policy and laws in Maine’s history,” said Justin Alfond, co-director of Full Plates Full Potential. “These bills remove many of the barriers kids face accessing nutritious food during school and the summertime.”
“Access to adequate nutrition is critical for children’s academic and social emotional development,” said Heather Zimmerman, Advocacy Director of Preble Street. “However, right now nearly half of all Maine students qualify for free and reduced price meals. The child nutrition bills passed by the Maine legislature this year will increase access to school meals, helping to reduce hunger in Maine and ensure all students have access to the nutrition they need to thrive.”
“These four childhood hunger bills will allow more Maine kids to grow up healthy, learn and reach their full potential,” said Anna Korsen, Full Plates Full Potential’s Program Director. “The legislature passed a better service model for breakfast, supported an underutilized after-school meals program, created an online application system so that families can sign up for nutritious meals and eliminated a financial barrier for lunch.”
The monumental bills that passed are:
- LD 701 which includes two major child hunger policies.
1.) The state will now create an online application for federal child nutrition food programs. Today 81,838 students are enrolled in federal food programs for free and reduced-price meals. There are many more children, however, who qualify for these programs but don’t enroll because their families never turn in their paper applications. 
Because of this law, the state will provide an online application system, in addition to the paper form, that local school districts can use to make it easier for parents to apply.
2.) For breakfast, schools will change their models to the national best practice known as Breakfast After the Bell. Serving breakfast after the first bell in the classroom or on a cart just outside of the classroom will increase participation and reduce the stigma for eligible children. The new law also includes funds to pay for infrastructure like food carts and point of sale systems to ease the burden on local school districts.
LD 549 For lunch, students who qualify for reduced price lunch will now eat for free. For these 11,000 students, often the reduced cost of lunch can be too much for families to afford, causing children to accumulate lunch debt. Eliminating the reduced-price category ensures that these students caught in the middle can access nutritious school lunches while reducing the administrative burden on school nutrition directors.- LD 577 After-school programs, from sports to school clubs, are a hallmark of many students’ educational experiences.
Most students arrive at after-school programs hours after they’ve eaten lunch. This new law will give children the opportunity to eat nutritious meals with their - peers so that they can learn, focus and complete after-school activities. Currently, only 28 of the 271 schools eligible actually participate in this federal food program.
Full Plates Full Potential started in 2015 and is Maine’s only statewide child hunger organization. Full Plates Full Potential does its work by partnering with other hunger relief organizations, granting funds and providing technical support to schools and nonprofits and working with chefs, businesses and others to end child hunger. Learn more at www.fullplates.org.
Justin Alfond, Treasurer,
Full Plates Full Potential
143 Vaughan Street
Portland, ME 04102
207-232-4187
