For thousands of children experiencing homelessness across our state, school is a safe haven, a roof over head, and the only place they can get things like food and air conditioning. But while class is out for the summer, those children are out of crucial resources.
Read MoreU.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Representative Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) announced the Universal School Meals Program Act, legislation that provides a permanent solution to end child hunger in schools by offering free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack to all students, preschool through high school, regardless of income. Throughout the pandemic, this program provided food-insecurity relief to families across the country but expired in September 2022.
Read MoreDuring the pandemic students all over New Mexico and the U.S. had access to free meals. Now the state has found a way to continue to make breakfast and lunch free for all students.
Read MoreAbout 71% of New Mexican students qualify for free or reduced-price meals yet some of our children are still going hungry. The Healthy Universal School Meals Act introduced by Democratic Senators Michael Padilla and Leo Jaramillo would give all public and charter school students free access to breakfast and lunch regardless of family income. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is a supporter of this bill and made it one of her priorities in her State of the State address.
Read MoreA bill being considered by the Legislature is designed to relieve some of the pressure on families' food budgets.
Read MoreLawmakers have advanced a substitute bill that would provide free breakfast and lunch to New Mexico school kids. Some legislators are skeptical about the price tag and whether the state can afford it in years to come. But supporters say this bill could keep thousands of kids from going hungry.
Read MoreIt probably comes as no surprise that reducing the stress of living in poverty, providing tutoring and addressing social-emotional challenges can help at-risk high school students succeed in the classroom.
Read MoreMya Meredith, a junior at Cuba High School, had a harder freshman year than most.
For some time that year, she lived in a domestic violence shelter with her family, and there were times they had trouble paying bills and getting basic necessities like clothes and hygiene products.
Read MoreAs New Mexico lawmakers look for ways to trim the state's budget, there's a proposal to scale back programs that are aimed at feeding kids in the state. The proposal is not sitting well with child advocates. "This is more urgent than people realize," said Jennifer Ramo, executive director of New Mexico Appleseed. "This is a terrifying, humanitarian disaster that we're watching for children."
Read MoreThere are new efforts to help with growing problems for New Mexico children. An organization is holding events to increase access to food and health care—two issues that the pandemic has made worse. Many groups are working overtime to help, including food banks, local schools, and the federal and state government, but the organization New Mexico Appleseed, which combats poverty, wants to do more.
Read MoreWe are watching in slow motion possibly one of the most horrendous and preventable humanitarian disasters in our nation’s history. With schools closed, hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of children are being left to fend for themselves academically, emotionally and developmentally and they may never catch up.
Read MoreHere's an issue Republicans and Democrats agree on: Ending the "barbaric" practice of school lunch shaming.
Read MoreState Senator Michael Padilla (D-NM) joins Greta Van Susteren to discuss his battle against the humiliating practice sweeping cafeterias across the nation.
Read MoreNew Mexico has become the first state in the U.S. to ban “lunch shaming.” The new law prevents schools from singling out students whose school cafeteria bills haven’t been paid.
Read MoreThe first of its kind legislation in the U.S. outlaws “lunchtime shaming” -- when children are denied food for overdue bills that their parents have not paid.
Read MoreWealth and class are difficult topics to discuss – but as children grapple with inequality, it’s our job to address it.
Read More"School lunch is no longer this Brady Bunch convenience; it is a soup kitchen," said Jennifer Ramo, of the New Mexico anti-poverty group Appleseed.
Read MoreWe're going to talk now about something called lunch shaming. That's when kids are publicly identified as being from families that can't afford to pay for school lunch, maybe they're identified with a wristband or a hand stamp. But then those kids are bullied or ostracized because of it. New Mexico has become the first state to make that kind of lunch shaming illegal with something called the Hunger-Free Students Bill of Rights. The bill makes schools talk to parents, not students when the student has cafeteria debt.
Read MoreNew Mexico students will no longer be singled out if they have debt in the school cafeteria. Our state became the first in the nation recently to outlaw what's known as "lunch shaming," which can include serving students a cold sandwich instead of a hot meal, requiring that they help clean up after the meal or stamping their arm with a message to parents that they owe money in the cafeteria.
Read MoreEvery day in this country students come to school without a way to pay for lunch. Right now it's up to the school to decide what happens next.
Since new legislation out of New Mexico on so-called lunch shaming made headlines, we've heard a lot about how schools react.
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