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Baltimore children attending public schools won’t have to go another day in class hungry thanks to a new state program.
On Tuesday, Maryland State Delegate Keith Haynes (D) spoke at Beechfield Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore to give the good news, the Baltimore Sun reported. Haynes is the chief sponsor of The Hunger Free Schools Act of 2015, a state law that allows any school and school district with at least 40 percent of its population considered low-income to offer free meals to all its students.
That number means every single school in Baltimore is eligible, Haynes told The Huffington Post.
Last year, 84 percent of city students qualified for free or reduced-cost meals. Baltimore is one of many Maryland districts currently taking part in the new program.
“There is an increasing number of homeless students within the Baltimore school system,” Haynes told HuffPost. “Under the old system, if the student was homeless and didn’t have a parent or guardian to complete the proper paperwork, they weren’t getting any meals at all. Other times, families who are homeless don’t want people to know, so would never fill out the forms. This new law removes those barriers, so everyone is equal.”
The program lets children get both breakfast and lunch for free at a time whenchildhood hunger is on the rise and almost half of all low-income kids in Americamiss out on breakfast.
