During my time in the Legislature, one of the constants has been the agreement that we need to take care of Maine kids. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, every lawmaker in Augusta agrees that our children deserve to feel safe, have enough to eat, and have access to quality education. During the holiday and winter season, I find myself reflecting on all the things we’ve done recently to make that a reality.

Over the past two years, we’ve seen just how critical the entire school experience is to a child’s wellbeing, even beyond their education. In Maine, 43% of students rely on school meals every day, and a staggering one in five Maine kids experiences food insecurity. Children need healthy, filling meals to reach their full potential. After all, it’s hard to concentrate on learning when you’re hungry. All of this means we need to make sure that the meals our children eat in school are as healthy as possible.

This year in the State House, I was proud to sponsor successful legislation that helped our schools purchase more locally sourced food. This bill expanded the existing Local Produce Fund to become the Local Food Fund. Under previous law, schools received $1 for every $3 spent on locally grown, fresh produce, helping food budget dollars stretch further and get vegetables and fruits onto students’ lunch trays. Now, this can be used to cover protein and minimally processed food, including meat and fish, eggs, yogurt, cheese and tofu. After hearing from school districts across the state, we also cut some red tape to make the process easier. Districts can now buy local food through the distributors they already have relationships with instead of only buying directly from farms. This expansion is great news for students, school budgets and local farmers and food producers, who now have more buyers for their products — that’s a lot of wins all around!

I was also proud to vote for a measure sponsored by my colleague Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, which expanded free school meals to be available to all Maine students, regardless of their family’s income level. For some families, they might make just too much money to qualify for free meals, but still have trouble putting food on the table. Others might have trouble filling out paperwork or asking for help. For students, they might feel stigma from their peers for receiving free meals.

Thanks to this expansion, as well as the expansion of the Maine Food Fund, every growing Maine student can get a free, filling meal every day at school. And we’re already seeing results: Between September and October of this year, the Department of Education reimbursed 58 school nutrition programs nearly $38,000 for local food purchases, meaning more than $113,000 was spent on local foods in just two months. By comparison, in the entire 2019-2020 school year, about $38,000 was reimbursed to just 30 school districts. More and more of our kids are getting healthy, locally grown food, and that’s a wonderful thing to celebrate.

I want to take time as well to recognize the hardworking cafeteria employees who prepare and serve meals to our kids. Your care and dedication help ensure the students in your care can grow, learn and play. During the pandemic, cafeteria cooks and servers across the state stepped up even further, preparing countless meals to send home with families to make sure their students, and often their students’ younger siblings as well, could have healthy meals. For families under financial or mental stress of the pandemic, this was a huge help. I was filled with such pride in our community every time I saw a photo in the paper or on social media of school workers and volunteers coming together to make sure Maine kids didn’t go hungry during this crisis.

I hope you and your family are staying warm, safe and healthy as winter continues to set in. If you ever have a question or concern, you can always reach out to me at Eloise.Vitelli@legislature.maine.gov or call my office at 287-1515.

Eloise Vitelli is a state senator representing District 23, covering Sagadahoc County and Dresden.

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