Nine out of every 10 schools are providing meals for free to all students under USDA waivers that are an unexpected issue in congressional budget negotiations this week. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is a strong opponent of extending the waivers, issued to help schools cope with the pandemic, into the 2022-23 school year.
School food directors say the child nutrition waivers should be extended for an additional year because of persistent supply chain disruptions and worker shortages. The extension is the top priority of the School Nutrition Association, speaking for food directors. A USDA survey found that most school food authorities expected higher food prices, limited supplies and labor shortages to continue into the new school year.
Extending the child nutrition waivers was estimated to cost $11 billion. The extension is one element in negotiations over funding the federal government for the fiscal year that ends on Sept. 30. A short-term spending bill was due to expire on Friday. Democratic leaders in Congress could unveil their proposal as early as Tuesday.
“These waivers have been critical in supporting school nutrition operations so that children have access to school and summer meals throughout the pandemic, and they are still needed as schools and families recover from and respond to the economic, health, and educational fallout from the pandemic,” said Luis Guardia, president of the antihunger Food Research and Action Center.
McConnell was in the forefront of opponents to the extension. An aide to Senate Republican leadership told the Washington Post the waivers were too expensive at a time when the government was spending too much and schools were re-opening anyway. Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow said GOP leaders “decided they prefer to let our kids go hungry.”
According to a USDA survey, 90 percent of schools used the so-called Seamless Summer Option waiver last fall, which allows schools to serve meals for free to all students and be reimbursed at a higher rate than usual. With the higher reimbursement rate, 71 percent of school food authorities at least broke even financially, roughly the same portion as before the pandemic.
Participation in school lunch and school breakfast plummeted when the pandemic hit in early 2020 and has been slow to rebound. Some 8.1 million students ate hot meals daily through the school lunch program last November, compared to an average 30 million a day before the pandemic forced schools to suspend classroom teaching or offer hybrid instruction.
If the USDA waivers expire as scheduled, on June 30, reimbursement rates for school meals would drop to $2.91 from the current $4.56 a meal. The waivers also give schools leeway in meeting targets for less salt or more whole grains in meals and they allow students to eat in the classroom as a precaution against Covid-19 rather than requiring meals in the cafeteria. In addition, the waivers have allowed schools to hand out meals at the curbside when students must quarantine.
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This story was updated on March 13 to correct the spelling of the name of FRAC leader Luis Guardia.