By Marielis Acevedo
Sep 29, 2023, 2:35 PM EDT
DENVER – Students in Colorado’s 178 school districts, including some 250,000 Latinos, have free healthy meals starting this week regardless of their socioeconomic level, a measure that the state considers unprecedented in the United States.
In November 2022, the state became the third in the country to pass a measure known as Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA) by popular vote.
What is new in this state is that “all” Colorado school districts joined the program, “offering free breakfast and lunch to students,” Sarah Sajbel, spokesperson for the Colorado Sin Hambre community coalition, which promoted the idea, told EFE. .
This initiative provides subsidies for schools to purchase food from local producers and offer a menu adapted to the needs and culture of students.
According to the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), the new measure would benefit a quarter of a million Latino students, which represent just over a third of the state.
Norma Martínez, a resident of one of the Hispanic neighborhoods in Denver, stated that she will no longer have to choose between paying rent or buying food, and that since they are distributed in the classrooms, her daughters do not experience “the shame that they previously felt for having than going to the dining room to look for free meals.”
In Denver Public Schools (DPS), just over 50% of the 90,500 students are of Latino origin, and 63% come from low-income families.
Sajbel said HSMA ensures that no student goes hungry during school hours.
Nationally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture this week announced it was providing grants to about 3,000 schools with at least 25% (up from 40%) low-income students to serve breakfast and lunch to about 5 million. from students.
This year, Minnesota and New Mexico passed school meal programs similar to Colorado’s, and about 20 states are debating legislation on the issue.
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