Dear Lucas,
You may have seen news stories over the last week about resistance to bringing school breakfast to more New York City students. The No Kid Hungry campaign is proving every day that school breakfast is one of the most effective tools in fighting child hunger. Will you tell the City Council that you support No Kid Hungry and bringing breakfast to more kids at risk of hunger?
The numbers are compelling: 474,000 New York City children live in homes that struggle to put enough food on the table. And as we have demonstrated in other states, giving those kids in-classroom breakfast is the most practical way to ensure that they start the day well-fed and ready to learn. If they don't get enough food, they'll likely get sick more often and are more likely to exhibit behavioral problems in school.
At the same time, New York City is last - that's right, last - among 26 large urban areas in school breakfast participation, despite the fact that 74% of the city's public school students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
Despite all this, the New York City Health Department is reluctant to bring breakfast to more students, citing concerns that some students may be having two breakfasts. We can't penalize children who are not getting enough to eat just because a few may be eating something in the morning in addition to their school breakfast. Fears about a small percentage of students "double-dipping" are no reason to freeze growth of one of the most important anti-hunger initiatives in America.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Billy Shore
Founder and CEO
P.S. If you haven't already seen it, I wrote an opinion piece about this issue in the New York Daily News last week, with our ally David Kirchhoff, president and CEO of Weight Watchers International. I encourage you to read and share the piece.