When the coronavirus crisis closed classrooms a year ago, many anti-hunger advocates credited a swiftly approved waiver from the federal Agriculture Department for helping many low-income families to weather the economic storm that followed.
The waiver allowed districts that provide school breakfasts and lunches to continue feeding children, even if those kids couldn’t make it to school cafeterias for meals. Around the country, school meal operations shifted gears and began distributing boxed lunches and breakfasts as grab-and-go meals that were a lifeline to many families.
A year into the crisis, it is clear that families need that lifeline still. Federal officials have extended the waiver several times, most recently through Sept. 30. The success of expanding the distribution of meals to hungry children, combined with the ongoing economic impact of the pandemic, should prompt federal officials to consider permanently overhauling the Child Nutrition Programs.
In Pennsylvania, more than 1 million children qualified for free or reduced-price meals before the pandemic struck. When the virus emerged, it was necessary to close schools for safety. It was equally important to make sure the children who relied on school meals could still get the food they needed.
To manage, the USDA waived several of its rules about serving school lunch meals, allowing districts to take free meals out into the community and distribute them in coronavirus-safe venues, including at community centers and via drive-thru pickups. The rule changes also allowed parents to collect meals for children and allowed for the pickup of multiple days’ worth of meals at once.
Within some districts, families were able to pick up meals at school buildings and neighborhood recreation centers.
School officials quickly adapted their meal programs and embraced the creative delivery solutions. But while the U.S. Department of Agriculture waived its rules for getting meals to hungry children, the federal government did not change its funding formula for local schools, creating budget problems for districts.
Packaging meals individually and delivering them off-site was more costly than serving children from a school cafeteria kitchen, so many school districts report their school-meal programs have operated at a loss in recent months. Addressing this would require increasing the USDA per-meal reimbursement, which federal officials should consider.
Even if school meals are slightly more expensive and slightly more difficult to organize, this still is an essential service delivered efficiently and at a comparative bargain. Imagine the price tag of creating, organizing and funding a replacement program to distribute food to needy families.
Many families already relied on school meals to make sure their children could be fed each day before the virus arrived, and many more have come to need them in the past year. The expanded school meal program is one of the pandemic success stories. The USDA should build on that success even after the pandemic ends.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS
