As the world faces the novel coronavirus pandemic, most everyone’s life has been affected in one way or another. People have lost jobs, worried about evictions, frequented food banks, and perhaps even come down with COVID-19 themselves. Many have lost loved ones to the disease. Children and teenagers, too, have been affected by the global pandemic. While many have attended some variation of virtual schooling over the past year, that’s not been the only stressful adjustment for some kids. For low-income students, the initial transition away from the standard routine of accessing free and reduced breakfast and lunch may have been anxiety-inducing and even embarrassing.
Thankfully, early on in the pandemic, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) implemented child nutrition program waivers to make it easier for students to access free meals. The waiver essentially allowed public schools and community centers to make school meals available as to-go options at more convenient windows (even if they fell outside of standard “lunch” time at school), which is obviously especially important when you can’t have everyone crammed in the cafeteria. All the meals were also free, regardless of family income. On Tuesday, the USDA announced in a news release that it will extend universal free lunch through the 2021-2022 school year, until June 2022, as reported by Ed Source.
This means that free meals will be available to all students, no matter their family income. The Department of Agriculture will reimburse the cost to schools for the free meals, as reported by The Washington Post. In addition to not having to waste time checking people’s eligibility (which, in itself, can be a barrier for low-income students even during normal times, as not everyone has the appropriate paperwork or means to access it) and being able to provide meals at nonstandard times, schools and community centers will also still be able to deliver meals.
Some meals are made available at community spaces and some districts bring meals right to students' houses. This factor is especially important given that not everyone’s family has access to private transportation (i.e., a car) and it’s nice not to pressure chronically ill people (or those living with family members who may be otherwise vulnerable to the virus) to have to use public transportation just to access a free lunch.
The waiver even makes it so parents or guardians can pick up meals for the day even if the student in question isn’t present (say, because they are doing virtual schooling), which makes the whole process a little smoother for people who may work more than one job or have limited transportation times.
In terms of cost, the waivers allow for a school reimbursement rate of $4.25 per meal. That’s actually the summer rate, which is an increase from $3.60 per meal. Why has this increase been important during the pandemic? The increased rate theoretically helps schools and communities offset costs associated with transporting meals, personal protective equipment, and the literal supplies needed for to-go meals. As of now, the reimbursement rate for the coming year’s meals has not yet been released.
As Daily Kos has covered countless times, school meals really should be universal for all students. We’ve seen deep pain and humiliation when kids are denied free lunch. For example, one New Jersey school district threatened to ban students from field trips and the prom if they had school lunch debt. And the Minnesota school that took away hot meals over students having more than $15 in lunch debt. In one particularly heinous example, one school district in Pennsylvania threatened to send students to foster care over school lunch debt.
Of course, all students deserve access to nutritionally sound meals no matter their income status. Even in addition to the obvious ethics, we know that hungry kids don’t do as well in school. Which makes sense because our brains and bodies literally need food to function. For example, as one study showed, in New York City schools universal free lunch was tied to higher state test scores in students, regardless of income level. So while stories like two pastors using $17,000 from the church budget to erase local school lunch debt are truly inspiring, they’re also truly sad—school lunch debt should not exist.
Thankfully, early on in the pandemic, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) implemented child nutrition program waivers to make it easier for students to access free meals. The waiver essentially allowed public schools and community centers to make school meals available as to-go options at more convenient windows (even if they fell outside of standard “lunch” time at school), which is obviously especially important when you can’t have everyone crammed in the cafeteria. All the meals were also free, regardless of family income. On Tuesday, the USDA announced in a news release that it will extend universal free lunch through the 2021-2022 school year, until June 2022, as reported by Ed Source.
This means that free meals will be available to all students, no matter their family income. The Department of Agriculture will reimburse the cost to schools for the free meals, as reported by The Washington Post. In addition to not having to waste time checking people’s eligibility (which, in itself, can be a barrier for low-income students even during normal times, as not everyone has the appropriate paperwork or means to access it) and being able to provide meals at nonstandard times, schools and community centers will also still be able to deliver meals.
Some meals are made available at community spaces and some districts bring meals right to students' houses. This factor is especially important given that not everyone’s family has access to private transportation (i.e., a car) and it’s nice not to pressure chronically ill people (or those living with family members who may be otherwise vulnerable to the virus) to have to use public transportation just to access a free lunch.
The waiver even makes it so parents or guardians can pick up meals for the day even if the student in question isn’t present (say, because they are doing virtual schooling), which makes the whole process a little smoother for people who may work more than one job or have limited transportation times.
In terms of cost, the waivers allow for a school reimbursement rate of $4.25 per meal. That’s actually the summer rate, which is an increase from $3.60 per meal. Why has this increase been important during the pandemic? The increased rate theoretically helps schools and communities offset costs associated with transporting meals, personal protective equipment, and the literal supplies needed for to-go meals. As of now, the reimbursement rate for the coming year’s meals has not yet been released.
As Daily Kos has covered countless times, school meals really should be universal for all students. We’ve seen deep pain and humiliation when kids are denied free lunch. For example, one New Jersey school district threatened to ban students from field trips and the prom if they had school lunch debt. And the Minnesota school that took away hot meals over students having more than $15 in lunch debt. In one particularly heinous example, one school district in Pennsylvania threatened to send students to foster care over school lunch debt.
Of course, all students deserve access to nutritionally sound meals no matter their income status. Even in addition to the obvious ethics, we know that hungry kids don’t do as well in school. Which makes sense because our brains and bodies literally need food to function. For example, as one study showed, in New York City schools universal free lunch was tied to higher state test scores in students, regardless of income level. So while stories like two pastors using $17,000 from the church budget to erase local school lunch debt are truly inspiring, they’re also truly sad—school lunch debt should not exist.