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Our Advocacy Priorities in 2025
Our Advocacy Priorities in 2025
Our unique approach to policy change centers the voices of school nutrition leaders and their students. In 2025, we endeavor to build on the landmark success of California’s School Meals for All program, providing resources and support for public school districts to address remaining barriers in students’ access to fresh and local school meals.
School Meals for All ensures that every student has the nourishment they need to learn and thrive at school, improves the culture around school meals, and directly addresses childhood hunger. This policy is critical in California, where 44% of food-insecure families do not qualify for federal school meal assistance. Since we co-sponsored and successfully passed School Meals for All, making California the first state in the nation to pass this groundbreaking policy, participation in school meals has increased by nearly 8%. Both students and school nutrition professionals report reduced stigma.
The rise in school meal participation has highlighted long-term challenges for school nutrition programs, such as staffing shortages, decades of underinvestment in school kitchen facilities, and hungry students missing or not finishing meals due to limited time to eat.
Our proposed policy solutions to address remaining barriers to fresh, local school meals and improve food systems education are informed by the school nutrition community, students, research, and the political landscape. Each year, school nutrition leaders in the Center for Ecoliteracy’s California Food for California Kids® Network and beyond are invited to contribute their policy priorities and share insights on the status of their school nutrition programs. Results from a recent Center for Ecoliteracy survey of school nutrition leaders representing 58 public school districts serving 25% of California students have directly informed our 2025 policy priorities.
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Protect Full Funding for School Meals for All
School Meals for All is a critical program to address childhood hunger because it meets students where they are five days a week: at school. As the stigma dissipates and more students participate in school breakfast and lunch, program costs may need to increase to meet demand. We will advocate for full funding to address increased demand alongside sustainable solutions to maximize federal funding for the program.
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“Our military families were reluctant to fill out meal applications thinking the meal program was ‘a handout’ but now that meals are free for all students, we are serving many more. Our staff are so happy they don't need to deal with negative balances or asking students for money. It allows the cafeteria to be a positive, supportive environment for our students.” —Amy Haessly, Child Nutrition Services Director, Fallbrook Union Elementary School District
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Further Invest in Kitchen Infrastructure and Training (KIT)
The KIT program supports the successful implementation of School Meals for All by providing funding for upgraded kitchen facilities, new equipment, and training for school nutrition professionals. According to a recent Center for Ecoliteracy survey, 82% of responding school districts are using KIT funding to serve more fresh and local school meals. To date, the state has invested $750 million in KIT, providing significant resources for school districts to maintain and expand their school meal programs. However, school districts report that more funding is needed, and in 2020, the UC Berkeley Center for Cities and Schools estimated that the cost for California schools to freshly-prepare meals for all students would be $5.8 billion. We will continue to advocate for KIT funding as the best solution for school districts to source more local food, serve more freshly-prepared meals, and support school nutrition professionals with equipment and training.
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“Our school kitchens were built in the 1970s and early 1980s to make 60 to 100 meals a day. We are currently pushing 422 to 571 meals a day out of these same kitchens.” —School Nutrition Director, Central Region
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Photo Courtesy USD
Support Policy Solutions to Increase Student’s Time to Eat
With participation in school meals increasing under School Meals for All, long lunch lines and insufficient time to eat are barriers to nourishing all hungry students. Research shows that when students have more time to eat (at least 25 minutes for lunch), they waste less food, eat more fruits and vegetables, and experience less hunger. Students who have adequate time to consume nutritious school meals do better academically. In a recent Center for Ecoliteracy survey, California school nutrition directors reported that 74% of elementary school kids have less than 15 minutes to eat lunch and 28% of elementary students have just 5-9 minutes.
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“Nobody can eat a full, balanced meal in five minutes. We source local ingredients and scratch cook in-house, but students don’t have the time to eat these meals with the demands on their time during the short lunch period.” —Michael Jochner, Director of Student Nutrition & Records Retention, Morgan Hill Unified School District
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Further invest in the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Office of Farm to Fork, Farm to School Incubator Grant Program, and Solutions Outlined in the Farm to School Roadmap
This program helps realize the full potential of California’s landmark School Meals for All program with freshly prepared, locally grown, and sustainably produced school meals that prepare students to learn and succeed. Farm to School increases purchases from California’s 4.6 billion dollar school food industry that go to local farmers and communities. This is the only school meal program that directly funds farmers (prioritizing BIPOC farmers and those who use climate-smart practices) and provides educational opportunities that connect classrooms, gardens, and cafeterias. In a recent Center for Ecoliteracy survey, 63% of recipients reported using the grant to provide more food or nutrition educational programs.
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“The California Farm to School Incubator Grant has helped us plant school gardens and connect our students to where their food comes from. The produce we grow on-campus is served on our salad bars along with locally-sourced produce. Next, we’re going to plan family cooking nights using our school garden produce.” –Jessie Wesch, Director of Food Services, Paso Robles Joint Unified School District
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Our advocacy efforts also span modeling lessons on the food system and climate change for our public school students. We are grateful to engage with partners on the following efforts in 2025:
Support the Climate Ready Schools Coalition
School closures because of wildfire smoke, floods, and other climate impacts are jeopardizing student health and learning. Creating school buildings and grounds that are more climate resilient and energy efficient prepares our schools for disasters and provides enhanced opportunities for student learning. The Center for Ecoliteracy’s role in this coalition is to uplift opportunities for the school food community and school gardens to be part of the solution, whether that’s investing in modernizing school kitchens with energy-efficient equipment or transforming asphalt lots into productive school gardens, orchards, and farms.
Support the Campaign for Outdoor Learning
The Campaign for Outdoor Learning seeks to ensure that students spend 20-25% of their school day outdoors, starting in communities of color and low-income communities. This work provides opportunities for students to “learn in the real world” through a range of experiences from residential outdoor education and field trips to outdoor classrooms. The Center for Ecoliteracy’s nascent role in this coalition is to advocate for outdoor opportunities for students to learn about the food system, such as by investing in school gardens or creating opportunities for farm field trips.
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