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New Hampshire
Advocates say bipartisan school meals bill could make a dent in child hunger – New Hampshire Bulletin
Tricia LaBelle has worked in school kitchens near Portsmouth for years. She’s seen the struggles that accompany families applying for free or reduced-price lunch meals. But it wasn’t until her son entered kindergarten that she fully grasped the challenge.
“I remember getting my first meal application and looking at it, as a person who would have qualified, and thinking, ‘No way – how embarrassing,’” she told lawmakers last month. “I’d have to fill out this packet and send it back in with him to give to his teacher.”
LaBelle knew the value the application would provide. Depending on their income level, kids on free or reduced-price meal plans pay 40 cents for lunch and 30 cents for breakfast – or nothing at all. The full price for lunches in New Hampshire schools can hover around $3 to $4 a day.
But LaBelle faced a bigger force: shame. “I was way too concerned that his teacher would then label him as a ‘free and reduced’ child,” she said. “That was a risk that I wasn’t willing to take.”
In most public schools, this is the only option for eligible families for the meal discounts – those making up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level. If they want to save money, they must fill out a physical application and return it to school, often in the hands of an embarrassed child. And LaBelle, who is now an advocate for New Hampshire Hunger Solutions, has seen other challenges. The schools provide breakfasts, but only if the students can get them in time to make their first class. If their bus is late, some kids don’t eat until noon.
Advocates say there are a number of fixes the state could make to improve the picture. And this year, lawmakers are showing interest. This month, the New Hampshire Senate gave support to a wide-ranging bill to expand public school meals in New Hampshire. Senate Bill 499 would increase the number of schools offering breakfast, help subsidize an approach to deliver breakfast between classes, incentivize healthier meals, and allow parents to more easily apply for free and reduced-price meals.
The Senate voted unanimously to approve it Thursday. The legislation moves next to the Senate Finance Committee, and will need final approval by the full Senate before heading on to the House.
Anti-hunger advocates say action is necessary. The U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey has found that as of October 2023, 44 percent of New Hampshire homes reported having “insufficient food,” a label that includes those who did not have enough food and those who had enough but not always the kind they wanted. That includes 50 percent of homes with children.
Sponsored by Hopkinton Democratic Sen. Becky Whitley and Bedford Republican Sen. Denise Ricciardi, SB 499 requires all school districts to make both breakfast and lunch available at school. Currently, state statute only requires at least one meal to be served.
“A child’s brain is built from the bottom up, with strong foundations essential to later physical, cognitive. and emotional well-being,” said Ricciardi. “We must ensure that early environments are working to support strong foundations. That’s why school meals are critical to young children.”
The bill would also help school districts implement an approach to nutrition known as “breakfast after the bell.” That approach allows students to get breakfast between their first class and lunch, eliminating the need to arrive at school earlier and eat it then. Under the bill, schools that want to launch that program would get reimbursement for any necessary equipment from the state’s Department of Education – provided that at least 40 percent of their students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.
SB 499 requires that all school districts participate in the National School Breakfast Program unless the district has its own breakfast program or has fewer than 10 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The bill also requires those districts that do participate in the program to collect statistics on how many students eat them.
The bill gives incentives to schools that improve the nutritional quality of their meals. Those schools that have adopted a school wellness policy, a document outlining how to promote student health, and who have met the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s child nutrition requirements for their meals could get reimbursement for the meals they serve from the Department of Education.
The legislation also seeks to make the process of applying for free or reduced-price meals easier for parents: It would require school districts to offer both online and physical applications in an effort to give parents more flexibility.
That application process has been politically contentious. During the COVID-19 pandemic, New Hampshire schools used federal funds to provide universal school meals, and lower-income parents did not need to apply. Now, families eligible for the subsidized meals once again need to apply. Republican lawmakers have opposed allowing New Hampshire to participate in “Medicaid Direct Certification,” a program that would let schools automatically enroll children into the program by determining their income from state Medicaid data.
And the bill requires the state Department of Education to participate in the Summer EBT program, which lets families eligible for free or reduced-price meals to continue receiving benefits on an EBT card through the summer.
The costs of the bill are still being worked out, Whitley said at a hearing. As currently written, the bill funds several of the initiatives with $1 – a placeholder amount that allows the governor to request to draw on more funds in the future.
To New Hampshire Hunger Solutions Director Laura Milliken, the state’s school meal supply acts like a power grid. Every school in the state provides meals, she told lawmakers last month. But not all have the best infrastructure to do it.
And while the federal government has made funding available for meals for lower-income families, the actual participation in those programs in the Granite State can be low.
“The federal nutrition programs that exist to help people in need are poorly connected within New Hampshire,” Milliken said.
Other advocacy organizations have rallied behind the bill, arguing in testimony that its benefits could extend beyond the state’s schools.
Nancy Vaughan, government relations director for the American Heart Association in New Hampshire, praised the incentives for nutritious food and said healthy eating habits benefit kids into adulthood. Dawn McKinney, policy director at New Hampshire Legal Assistance, said the organization supports any easing in applications for food benefit programs, noting that students in families who are enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) automatically receive free and reduced-price lunches.
When Renee Berkley moved to Alstead from Utah and began volunteering in the school system, she was surprised at the amount of hardship she saw.
“All I kept thinking was the Aerosmith song ‘Livin’ on the Edge,’ ” she told lawmakers. “There’s so many families living on the edge that are barely making ends meet.”
Berkley pointed to other New England states, such as Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont, that surround New Hampshire and currently provide free meals to all public school students.
“So what message are you sending people who moved to New Hampshire like myself?” she said. “What is your priority? Is it ‘live free and die’? Is it ‘live free and be poor and hungry’? Or can we turn this around?”
New Hampshire
Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.
“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.
“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”
Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.
“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.
He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”
Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.
For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.
“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”
Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.
CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”
Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.
29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.
“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.
While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.
“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,
“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.
“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.
Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.
“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.
Local News
Police say the Attleboro man was driving 104 mph in a 55 mph zone on Route 202 near in Rindge, New Hampshire.
A Massachusetts man was arrested late Wednesday night after police say he was driving more than 100 mph on a New Hampshire roadway.
Officers with the Rindge Police Department stopped a vehicle shortly after 11 p.m. on Route 202 near Sears Drive in Rindge following a report of a car traveling at excessive speed, according to a statement from Chief Rachel Malynowski.
The vehicle, a 2020 Kia Stinger, was spotted traveling at 104 mph in a posted 55 mph zone, Malynowski said.
The driver, a 21-year-old man from Attleboro, was arrested and charged with reckless operation of a motor vehicle, according to police.
He is scheduled to be arraigned April 5. If convicted, the man faces a fine of at least $750, in addition to the court’s penalty assessment, and a 90-day license suspension, Malynowski said.
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