Addressing Food Insecurity through Community Schools in California

Full-service community schools are public schools that serve as hubs for their neighborhoods, going far beyond academics to connect students and families with healthcare, mental health care, social services, and family engagement—all in one place. These schools differ from typical public and charter schools by actively integrating with community organizations and resources to address a broader range of student needs. They’re grounded in a simple but powerful idea: when schools address the full spectrum of challenges students face, they are better equipped to thrive.

In 2023, California made a historic $4.1 billion investment to bring this vision to life, expanding community schools across the state. As community schools across the state began receiving funding, Bloomberg Fellow Ali Wohlgemuth, in partnership with her collaborating organization Bay Area Community Resources, and Associate Professor Erin Hager, saw a critical opportunity to make access to healthy and nutritious food a core part of the initiative. 

With additional support from the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, they developed practical, actionable recommendations for 265 school districts throughout the state of California, helping schools embed food security into their everyday systems.

Through a comprehensive scan of existing policies and programs, Wohlgemuth and her team identified twelve programs that address food security currently in place across community schools in California that could be replicated in other community schools. Some examples include:

• Breakfast for nonschoolaged children, whereby districts in California can be reimbursed for providing breakfast to the younger siblings of current students who meet the criteria for free or reduced-price lunch
• Updating existing policies to ensure students have access to food beyond the lunchroom, such as allowing non-perishable food to be taken out of the lunchroom for later consumption
• CalFresh enrollment support, where schools help families apply for federal food benefits on-site.

After presenting these findings to a group at the School Health Conference in California, Wohlgemuth was invited by the Office of School Health at the California Department of Public Health to present her findings with over 200 individuals representing schools and districts across the state, sharing with them equity-driven programs and policies to reduce childhood food insecurity.

Now, with the success of the project gaining momentum, Wohlgemuth and her team have launched a new website to share their tools and findings more broadly, ensuring that even more children across California can focus on learning, not where their next meal is coming from.