2025 State of the State Address Gov. Evers Announces “Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids” Initiative to End School Meal Debt, Provide Healthy Breakfast and Lunch to Wisconsin Students

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers during his 2025 State of the State address, announced his plan to address student hunger through the “Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids” initiative in his 2025-27 Executive Budget proposal.

The governor, during his address, declared 2025 the Year of the Kid in Wisconsin, urging bipartisan focus on ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of Wisconsin’s kids statewide. The governor’s “Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids” initiative aims to help improve kids’ outcomes and ensure kids are healthy and come to class coursework ready by fully funding school breakfasts and lunches for students across the state. The governor’s plan is designed to make sure no kid goes hungry at school by providing healthy meals with no stigma and at no cost to kids and families.

Relevant excerpts from Gov. Evers’ 2025 State of the State address are available below:

“…I will keep saying this until the folks in this building finally hear me—if we want to improve our kids’ outcomes, then we have to shorten the odds. If we want our educators and schools to be able to do their very best work in the hours our kids are with them, we have to set them up for success. And we have to start by making sure our kids can bring their full and best selves to our classrooms.

“Kids in class should be focused on learning, not wondering when or whether they’ll eat next. Our kids should never go hungry, period, but especially not at school. In 2025 the Year of the Kid, the budget I will introduce next month will again include my ‘Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids’ initiative. Let’s end school meal debt and make sure every kid has a healthy breakfast and lunch at school with no stigma and at no cost. …”

GOV. EVERS’ “HEALTHY MEALS, HEALTHY KIDS” INITIATIVE

Many Wisconsin kids face daily anxiety about where their next meal will come from, with as many as one in six children facing hunger in Wisconsin. Food insecurity and poor nutrition often make school difficult for kids and have been shown to have a negative effect on concentration, student outcomes and achievement, and increased behavioral challenges.

According to the Wisconsin Office of Children’s Mental Health’s 2024 Annual Report, food insecurity has been linked to impacting children’s mental health, and in 2023 alone, the Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey found 30 percent of students who were food insecure seriously considered suicide. Additionally, studies have shown that kids who face food insecurity have increased rates of stress, depression, and other behavioral challenges due to increased anxiety about their parent’s financial well-being, access to food, and embarrassment surrounding their food insecurity. Studies have also shown that in households with children who attend schools that offer free school meals, household spending on groceries fell as much as $39 a month, roughly over $460 a year.

Gov. Evers’ plan helps address food insecurity and hunger affecting our kids’ learning and outcomes in classrooms every day while also working to lower costs for parents and families. The governor’s proposal aims to make sure every kid has access to a healthy breakfast and lunch every day at school with no stigma and at no cost to families.

The governor’s proposed $154.8 million “Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids” 2025-27 Executive Budget investment includes: