J 391: Memorializing Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim March 3-7, 2025, as School Breakfast Week in the State of New York

 Senate Resolution No. 391 BY: Senator PERSAUD MEMORIALIZING Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim March 3-7, 2025, as School Breakfast Week in the State of New York WHEREAS, It is the custom of this Legislative Body to recognize official weeks that are set aside to increase awareness of important initiatives that affect the lives of citizens of New York State; and WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern, and in full accord with its long-standing traditions, this Legislative Body is justly proud to memorialize Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim March 3-7, 2025, as School Breakfast Week in the State of New York, in conjunction with the observance of National School Breakfast Week; and WHEREAS, National School Breakfast Week celebrates the importance of a nutritious school breakfast in fueling students for success; this special observance during the first week of March celebrates the National School Breakfast Program and the many ways it gives kids a great start every day; and WHEREAS, The School Breakfast Program (SBP), permanently established in 1975, provides nutritionally balanced breakfasts to more than 15 million children across 91,000 schools and institutions in the United States; and WHEREAS, This vital program meets the nutritional needs of children, improves food security, and promotes health, learning, and development by providing nutritionally balanced breakfasts to school children each day; and WHEREAS, 19% of children in the State of New York are food insecure and face hunger; and WHEREAS, School-aged children who experience hunger are more likely to be absent from school, visit the school nurse, and experience more challenges than children with a nutritious diet, and skipping breakfast has consistently been linked with worse academic and health outcomes for children; and WHEREAS, Eating breakfast improves children's overall diets, builds healthy, lifelong eating habits, and enhances their ability to learn and perform academically; and WHEREAS, Making breakfast a part of the school day and offering breakfast at no cost are effective ways to ensure more students realize the benefits of breakfast; and WHEREAS, More than 152 million breakfast meals were served in New York State in 2024, reaching more than 876,000 students; and WHEREAS, Furthermore, more than 1,200 schools participate in New York's Breakfast After the Bell program, which, created in 2018, helps more schools adopt innovative breakfast models like Breakfast in the Classroom, Grab and Go, and Second Chance Breakfast by providing start-up funds to purchase equipment and counting breakfast in the classroom as instructional time; and WHEREAS, New York established the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Subsidy Program in 2023 to ensure all meals are reimbursed at the free rate, enabling over 1,200 schools to newly adopt CEP, and expanding access to no-cost meals to nearly 350,000 additional students; and WHEREAS, More than 99% of eligible schools and districts adopted CEP in New York State in the 2023-24 school year, one of the highest participation rates in the country; and WHEREAS, Parents, caregivers, teachers, and school food personnel all play an essential role to ensure the children of New York have the basic resources needed to grow, learn, discover their own potential, and live happy fulfilling lives; and WHEREAS, No Kid Hungry offers information, tools, resources and grants to support schools in implementing and expanding school breakfast programs; and WHEREAS, This Legislative Body is committed to helping expand access to and enhance current school breakfast programs to ensure that our children have the means to succeed; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to memorialize Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim March 3-7, 2025, as School Breakfast Week in the State of New York; and be it further RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be transmitted to The Honorable Kathy Hochul, Governor of the State of New York.