Eagles player, kids wearing milk mustaches, school breakfast champs & more at our event today in Atlantic City…

We had a great time celebrating school breakfast and spotlighting a new state law that requires all high-poverty schools to serve breakfast after the bell. We started the morning with a visit to Mrs. Lee’s 3rd grade class at the Richmond Avenue School in Atlantic City, where breakfast is served to all students from grades pre-k through high school. The district serves a whopping 85 percent of all eligible students and is a statewide model for how to do breakfast right!

View event pics.
Learn more about the new school breakfast law.

While enjoying a healthy breakfast, the kids had a great time with Eagles former wide receiver Jason Avant, while sporting milk mustaches, courtesy of our event co-sponsor the American Dairy Association Northeast. The students also had a chance to tell Assemblymen Vince Mazzeo and John Armato why they love school breakfast.

Atlantic City Superintendent Barry Caldwell told advocates how critical school breakfast is for students. “For some, this is the only meals they get,” he said.

Hunger Free New Jersey Director Adele LaTourette shared more information about the new law and how we worked to get it passed, while Advocates for Children of New Jersey President Cecilia Zalkind documented the tremendous progress we’ve made so far on feeding more kids.

We were also joined by Alison Maurice of the Food Research & Action Center, one of our most valuable national partners, who said New Jersey is a model for other states and predicted the new law would help us feed even more children.

And…Meghan Collins from Tusk Montgomery Philanthropies thanked Gov. Phil Murphy and lawmakers for supporting school breakfast expansion. We’re grateful to Tusk Montgomery Philanthropies for its generous support of our efforts to bring breakfast to more hungry students.

Hunger Free New Jersey, Advocates for Children of New Jersey and the New Jersey Food for Thought Campaign will be working over the next year to ensure successful implementation of the new law, which has the potential to benefit 150,000 additional low-income New Jersey children.

Thanks to all our partners, especially the New Jersey Department of Agriculture and the New Jersey School Boards, for their incredible efforts in making school breakfast happen for so many students.

A great event all around — and a great way to kickoff our next phase of school breakfast for all.