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.