It seems that November 2025 is the month for food assistance programs to meet their maker. Amidst the slashes to SNAP benefit funding, Colorado is facing two ballot measures that risk funding for the Healthy School Meals for All (HSMA) program if not passed.
HSMA was successfully passed by Colorado voters in 2022. The program utilizes state funding to offer healthy breakfast and lunch options to schools that opt in, regardless of their income levels.
The two propositions on this year’s ballot aim to provide more funding to the program by changing how state taxes are handled. Proposition LL would allow Colorado to retain the $12.4 million in tax revenue already collected for the program rather than return it to Coloradans who make $300,000 a year or more. It also asks voters whether to keep the lower tax deduction limits that voters approved in 2022 for those earning $300,000 or more for this program, as well as ensuring the state will spend at least $1 million on HSMA if Proposition MM doesn’t pass.
Proposition MM would lower the state income tax deduction limits for taxpayers earning $300,000 or more. This would effectively generate an additional $95 million annually for HSMA.
Since the implementation of HSMA, the Colorado Department of Education has reported it to be highly successful across the state. There was a 37% increase in school breakfast participation and a 30% increase in school lunch participation in the 2023-2024 school year. Additionally, there has been a 5% increase in breakfast participation and a 3% increase in lunch participation in the 2024-2025 school year.
The success of this program was reaffirmed by Erika Edwards, the Director of Operations for Food and Nutrition Services at Jefferson County School District. She said that there has been a 40% increase in meal participation in her district since HSMA was implemented. Part of the reason for HSMA’s progress in the district, Edwards said, is that the program does not discriminate based on income.
“28 to 32% of our kids qualify for receiving free meals in the traditional school meal service,” Edwards explained. “Jeffco itself is a very high cost-of-living community, and that percentage is probably not very reflective of the actual need within our community…There is a significant amount of families that don’t qualify, but truly struggle to eat, to find meals.”
For many families that are struggling to eat, food banks become an important support for them. But even some food banks are finding themselves battling for funding and resources.
Gale Coombs, the president of Colorado Feeding Kids, a non-profit that provides nutritious meals for those in need, is concerned about how a reduced budget for HSMA could ultimately impact organizations like hers.
“Money is hard to get right now,” said Coombs. “If this is going to cut more money, that’s just going to impact everything.”
This concern was echoed by Sheila Sthole, the director of Living Tower Food Bank, another non-profit that provides healthy meals for Coloradans. Shtole noted that Living Tower is already struggling to meet the needs of its communities, and a hit to HSMA could have a huge impact on them.
She said, “If [kids] are not fed in schools, which sometimes that’s their only meal…the rise in food banks is going to just absolutely explode. We’re already seeing a 22% increase every time we’re open.” From Shtole’s perspective, these propositions are a must-have for Colorado.
“Depending on how these propositions go, we could be in even more trouble,” said Shtole.
However, some Coloradans see Propositions LL and MM through a different lens, one focused on taxpayer rights and benefits.
Judith Jergensen, the president of the Colorado Federation of Republican Women, explained the issue as “an attack on TABOR.” TABOR, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights in Colorado, limits the amount of tax revenue the state can retain and use. For groups like Jergensen’s, LL and MM are overreaches of state government into the pockets of taxpayers.
Jergensen emphasized that a rejection of these propositions would not jeopardize those really in need. “We have laws that will provide free lunches for our school kids,” she said. “No one is going to be hungry.”
If neither LL nor MM is passed, starting in January 2026, only Colorado schools that qualify for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) would continue to use HSMA. Schools that do not meet CEP requirements, however, would lose access to the program.
Ultimately, Jergensen sees the propositions, particularly MM, as an unfair hit to successful Coloradans. “If you start penalizing them for being successful, pretty soon they’ll go somewhere else, and that just hurts us all,” Jergensen said. Her concern is not only that taxpayer dollars are being taken, but that this move could drive people away from Colorado.
Nonetheless, paying extra taxes to ensure meals for school children is something that some successful Coloradans are in full support of. April Vanover, a mother in Colorado Springs, is in full support of both propositions even though she is part of the tax bracket that would be impacted.
Vanover said, “My main concern was taking care of children. Children cannot learn properly if they are hungry or are experiencing food scarcity. As a society, it is our responsibility to take care of the most vulnerable.”
Propositions LL and MM have tapped into multiple facets of voter considerations, ranging from humanitarian perspectives to financial ones. However, Sheila Sthole boiled the issue down to a question of whether people are willing to help one another. She emphasized that these Propositions are about providing for those who need extra support, regardless of the tax issue.
“You have to know your community, and you have to understand that this is not about laying claim to something. There’s no dog in this fight; we’re just trying to make things better for families that are in need,” she said.
“It means that you’re thinking of others more than you’re thinking about yourself, and that should extend to outside your family,” Sthole continued. “Being a good neighbor, being a good community member, that’s not about geographic proximity. That means that you reach out to everybody, and that means the kids sitting next to your kid.”