Rep. Gary Turco Advocates for Children’s Free and Reduced-Price Lunch Program

Rep. Gary Turco (D-27), whose district includes the southeastern corner of New Britain, is advocating for legislation to provide funding for free or reduced-price lunch for children in schools.

Rep. Turco advocated for legislation and for the legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee to provide funding to support the school lunch program.

“Funding school meals is an investment in our children, educational system and entire state’s well-being.” said Turco, “but childhood hunger is very real and happening in every community, regardless of average household wealth as one in eight children in Connecticut suffers from hunger and it negatively affects physical, oral, and mental health.”

Rep. Turco added that, “Hunger can also lead to behavior problems and difficulty with learning. It can also lead to obesity as children eat cheaper and reduced-nutrition meals. Any increase in education funding, new school buildings and teacher support will be negated if children are too hungry to focus and learn.”

Highlighting that lack of public funding can lead to debt for low-income families, Turco said that, “From September to January, there was already close to $400,000 in student meal debt owed by families. This number is predicted to continue to climb and will increase the stigma and potentially bullying children face.”

Turco said that he would support lifting the state’s “fiscal guardrails” in order to support the program providing food for children.

“Let’s work toward Connecticut ensuring no child in the classroom goes hungry,” Rep. Turco said, “by passing universal school breakfast permanently as proposed in this bill and add funding for free lunch for those eligible for reduced pricing.”