Members of the public expressed broad support for a bill that would provide free breakfast for all public school students in Connecticut.

Legislators on the Education Committee heard their testimony at a public hearing over Zoom on Monday. The bill they raised, House Bill 5214, aligns closely with Gov. Ned Lamont’s calls at the start of the legislative session to fund universal breakfast for all students in the state.

Rep. Moira Rader, D-Branford, said during the hearing that this would help kids whose families don’t qualify because income limits are low.

“There are a lot of families that are barely getting by in Connecticut, and yet we can’t help them.” Rader said. “So something like this where we could at least make sure every kid starts their day with breakfast, could alleviate that family’s debt and shame.”

Stephania Korenovsky, a graduate of East Haven Public Schools and current graduate student at Yale, testified in support of the bill. She said her family struggled financially when she was bumped from a free to reduced-price lunch plan. When school lunches were made free to all students during the COVID-19 pandemic, Korenovsky said it made a big difference for her family. And she said she noticed more of her peers would eat lunch when it was free.

“These [free] meals removed stigma, reduced stress and ensured that students could focus on learning instead of worrying about whether they could afford to eat,” Korenovsky said.

She said families are facing similar issues as she once did, earning too much to qualify for assistance but still struggling to afford basic needs. “I respectfully urge you to support H.B. 5214 and expand access to free school meals so that every child in Connecticut can learn, grow and thrive,” she told lawmakers at Monday’s hearing. 

James Wong, a senior at Windsor High School, told lawmakers that free breakfast removes an obvious barrier to classroom performance. 

“I think we’ve all heard the ‘students can’t do their best job if they’re hungry’ line before, right?” Wong said.

[RELATED: Lamont kicks off universal breakfast push at West Hartford school]

Lamont’s proposed budget would direct $12 million to universal free breakfast and an additional $500,000 to allow students receiving reduced price lunches to eat lunch for free, as well. The figures came from calculations by the Connecticut State Department of Education of how much it would cost to feed all students not currently covered by the federal Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP.

The Education Committee’s bill would direct non-CEP districts to provide free breakfast to all students and free lunch to all students receiving reduced priced lunches. It does not include how much funding the state will provide and has yet to be considered by the legislature’s Appropriations Committee.

Under CEP, if more than 25% of students in a school or district qualify for free and reduced meals, all students there can receive free breakfast and lunch. For non-CEP districts, a family’s income must be lower than $41,795 before taxes for free meals. For reduced meals, that number is less than $59,478.

As of Dec. 1, 63 districts in Connecticut offer free meals to all students, but at 12 of those districts, the program is only available at some of the schools. That’s out of a total of 202 school districts in the state.

Federal support that covers reduced-price meals isn’t expected to change. Under Lamont’s proposal, state funding would cover the reduced portion that families are still paying, said John Frassinelli, education division director of the State Department of Education, during Monday’s hearing.

Rep. Tina Courpas, R-Greenwich, pressed Frassinelli on how funding would be calculated for the state’s free breakfast program.

“What can towns expect as a result of this bill?” Courpas asked. “Can they expect their universal free meal budget to go to zero because the state’s picking up every shortfall or not?”

The answer to that is somewhat complex, Frassinelli explained.

The state program would reimburse the same amount of dollars the federal government does through the existing free and reduced-price meal program. However, that does not necessarily reflect the cost of those meals, or what school districts opt to pay. In other words, districts might still have to set aside some money for meals in their budgets, even with the new legislation.

Committee co-Chair Rep. Jennifer Leeper, D-Fairfield, said that issue was part of a larger discussion around federal school meal policy.

“The federal program around meals is very complex and, in my very humble opinion, inadequate, especially for both the increasing costs of food and also knowing what kids like to eat,” Leeper said.

This is the second year Lamont has urged the General Assembly to fund universal free breakfast. His proposal comes at a time where disruptions to other federal programs like SNAP have affected people in need statewide. According to a report released in January, by the Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity, Connecticut has the highest rate of food insecurity in New England.  

Despite federal cuts, a Connecticut funded SNAP program is not included in Lamont’s budget proposal.