Colorado School Meals

Colorado voters will have a chance this November to vote YES on Proposition FF, which ensures access to free, nutritious meals for all students in public schools.

In Colorado, more than 60,000 kids can’t afford school meals but don’t qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Additionally, two out of every five Colorado families struggle to put food on the table for their children. No child should go hungry because their families can’t afford a nutritious meal.

When children go hungry, their academic performance and long-term development suffers. For many students, school meals might be their only meals each day. Studies show providing children with a healthy breakfast and lunch helps them be more attentive and engaged, which leads to higher attendance rates, better grades and higher graduation rates.

This initiative will provide resources our schools need to prepare healthy meals using nutritious, locally-sourced ingredients.

Heart Health Facts

• What we eat and drink matters to our heart and brain health, and a healthy diet and lifestyle are keys to preventing and managing cardiovascular disease.
• Food insecurity, a common cause of inadequate nutrition, contributes to disparities in chronic disease outcomes, especially for cardiovascular diseases.
• There is strong evidence food insecurity is associated with obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
• Worsening socioeconomic disparities in diet quality are increasingly recognized as drivers of chronic disease disparities.

A YES vote on Proposition FF will:

• Provide access to a free and nutritious meal for all public school students;
• Support Colorado farmers and ranchers by enabling school systems to purchase locally-sourced foods; and
• Create a sustainable, long-term funding source for healthy school meals for all.

How is it funded?

It is funded by limiting state income tax deductions for the top 3 percent of Colorado income earners – people who make $300,000 per year or more. If you don’t make $300,000 or more per year, your taxes will not be affected by this ballot measure.