Free Meals Coming to Haldane

State will provide funds for breakfast, lunch
Haldane students will receive free breakfast and lunch at school in 2025-26 thanks to a newly created state program funded largely by the federal government.
The Universal Free Meals program, included in the state's 2025-26 budget, will provide breakfast and lunch at no charge beginning in the fall, said Carl Albano, the interim superintendent. About half of the district's 800 students in kindergarten through 12th grade buy meals in the cafeteria, and about 150 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
In Garrison, meanwhile, the district included funding in its 2025-26 budget to offer lunch to its 200 students in kindergarten through eighth grade but has encountered obstacles. Garrison students bring their lunches except on Friday, when they can purchase pizza provided by the eighth-grade class as a fundraiser. The district budgeted $150,000 to pay for upgrades to its kitchen and for staff to launch a pilot lunch program in the fall but has had trouble finding another district to partner with.
Because Garrison's kitchen is not currently equipped to provide meals, the district hoped to have Hendrick Hudson in Montrose send lunches from its high school cafeteria, said Superintendent Greg Stowell. The plan was to sell meals for about $6 on weekdays except Friday, when the pizza fundraiser would continue.
About two weeks ago, he said, the plan fell apart when Hendrick Hudson High School joined the Universal Free Meals program, which has requirements that complicate partnerships. Hendrick Hudson is also going through personnel changes among its food-service supervisors.
Stowell said Garrison is trying to determine how much it would cost to partner with another district and provide Garrison students with free lunches, a decision that would need to be made by the end of July. If the district becomes subject to the regulations of the Universal Free Meals program, it would have to serve meals five days a week and could not have the Friday pizza fundraisers, which last year raised $8,000 for eighth-grade programs, including a class trip.
The Beacon school district has provided free breakfast and lunch for all its students since January 2024 through a different state program called Community Eligibility Provision, said Anthony Rollins, its lunch director. To be eligible, a district must show that 25 percent of its students would qualify for free or reduced lunch under the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs, which were established in 1946. Rollins said the Beacon district, which has 2,600 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, serves 900 breakfasts and 1,700 lunches a day.