Rachael Ray fights for free lunch in NYC Public Schools

Rachael Ray is lobbying to provide free lunch for NYC Public Schools’ 1.1 million students. The Food Network celebrity chef has teamed up with the Lunch 4 Learning campaign and created a petition through Change.org pressing Mayor Bill de Blasio to offer free lunch across the district.

"I've launched my Change.org petition urging Mayor Bill de Blasio to ensure that he sticks to his commitment of providing New York City public school students with a nutritious free lunch without regard to income," Ray said in a news release. "All children should have access to a nutritious hot meal at lunch, end of story. Kids with empty bellies can't learn."

As of this morning, the petition Ray published last week has more than 31,500 signatures, needing only 35,000 total. Ray told FoxBusiness.com that universal free lunch would prevent stigma and bullying issues for students who couldn’t afford to eat otherwise. According to the release, 75% of NYC’s Public School students come from families that are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch.

Ray noted Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., as success stories for free lunch and referred to the program as an investment. “Over 90% of school lunch costs are covered by federal and state reimbursements,” she told FoxBusinesss.com. “Each additional lunch served brings in additional federal and state funds. The budget for [fiscal year] 2017 is $82 billion and the funds needed to roll this out would be a very modest investment for a transformative change that will have a positive impact.”

Currently, freestanding middle schools are the only recipients of universal free lunch programs within NYC Public Schools.