What Does the FY22 New York State Budget Mean for Child Nutrition?

What Does the FY22 New York State Budget Mean for Child Nutrition?

New York State has come to an agreement on the FY21-22 New York State budget bills. The $212 billion dollar budget is being touted as the largest in state history and includes expanded support for programs to help struggling New Yorkers. There was good news for programs that help kids and families struggling with hunger including:

• Reimbursement for Home Delivered Meals: School districts across the state will now be reimbursed for the cost of delivering school meals and instructional materials during pandemic-related school closures in spring 2020.
• $50M for Nourish New York: Nourish New York was created in response to the pandemic and connects food banks with the New York agricultural industry by providing products grown and processed in New York to emergency food providers across the state.
• New York Restaurant Resiliency Grant Program: This new program allocates $25 million in grant funding to support restaurants that provide meals to distressed and under-represented communities.
• Farm to School Programs: Both the New York State Farm to School Reimbursement Incentive ($10 million) and the Farm to School Grants program ($1.5M) received level funding. Both programs work to serve more kids healthy, fresh New York grown food through the school meal programs.

Attention now turns to the legislative session where No Kid Hungry New York will continue to advocate for programs that address rising food insecurity. To learn more about our state legislative priorities, please see our No Kid Hungry New York State Legislative Priorities or see our New York State Policy Resource page.