Expanding Maine's Nation-leading Free School Meals Program

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

I was pleased to be back in Brunswick recently, at Family Focus child care, to celebrate another milestone in our efforts to expand access to quality early learning for Maine's kids.

In 2021, I was proud to sign legislation making Maine the second state in the nation to fully fund universal free meals in our public schools, erasing a divide that stigmatized kids whose families have less.

About 170,000 public school students can get free food at school. That sets them up for success in the classroom, it saves their parents money on their grocery bill, and it supports our farms and locally grown food. More than 30 million meals were served in Maine during the 2024-2025 school year.

We've maintained this critical program so that no child in Maine goes hungry and tries to learn on an empty stomach.

We've also expanded pre-K programs across Maine. And we've reached our highest level of enrollment ever in the 2025-2026 school year. That expansion of pre-K programs would not have been possible without the cooperation of school districts and community child care programs. Many schools simply don't have space for pre-K classrooms for all the kids, so they partner with a licensed community-based child care program, like Family Focus to provide public pre-k.

Schools want to provide free meals to the kids in community pre-K programs, just as they do for kids at school-based programs, but federal nutrition regulations don't allow off-site meals. In a handful of cases, the community child care programs, many already operating on razor thin margins, are covering the costs of meals themselves.

The Director of Space to Thrive in Windham, Hannah Marshall, explained it this way: "A four-year-old attending a school-based pre-K classroom receives meals, while a four-year-old attending a community-based public pre-K […] does not -- even though both children are part of the same public education system. A four-year-old deserves to eat, regardless of early childhood setting."

I couldn't agree more.

The supplemental budget I signed into law recently includes funding for Senate President Mattie Daughtry's proposal to expand access to free meals for public pre-K students. The budget includes $375,000 in ongoing funding for a grant program so school districts can partner with off-site child care programs to provide nutritious snacks and meals to enrolled public pre-K students.

We know that school meals keep kids from going hungry and that eating during the school day improves student attendance, behavior and academic achievement. It was my honor to sign a budget that expands free meals to pre-k students across Maine.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.