While the idea of universal free meals seems like a no-brainer, it wasn’t easy to achieve. Advocates needed to build political will for policy change, which was complicated by competing public priorities, and concerns over cost and administrative issues. A key factor in the program’s success was an improvement in state income matching data, which provides the basis for the city to calculate federal and state meal reimbursements.

This meant that because the vast majority of NYC students already qualify for free lunch, it was possible to expand free meals to all students at no cost.

Success was also made possible by the active engagement and advocacy of the many community partners who came together under the Lunch 4 Learning campaign, spearheaded by CFA. The campaign’s coalition included students, parents, educators, school-based unions, medical professionals, and public officials. Celebrity chefs, including Rachael Ray, lent star power. But at the campaign’s heart were student and parent groups, who brought their passion and personal stories to the effort. They prepared testimony, met with elected officials and ran social media campaigns. One effective Twitter campaign asked students, teachers, and parents to share selfies that explained why universal free meals were important to them. And so the policy victory is now their victory—empowering the community and building infrastructure for future civic activism.

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