The $1.5 Trillion spending bill, which would finance the federal government beyond Friday, doesn’t include special benefits that were put in place at school to ensure that all students are fed.
School nutrition advocates warn that the child nutrition waivers will be canceled on June 30. This could mean millions of schoolchildren won’t have access to breakfast or lunch at a time when food costs are rising.
Beth Wallace, President of the School Nutrition Association said Wednesday that while we all want to end the pandemic, what school meal programs are facing is far from normal. These waivers are essential to manage unpredictable supply chains and labor shortages, to cover rapidly rising costs, and to sustain our communities.
Wallace, who represents more than 55,000 school nutritionists, stated that “Congress’ failures to act will undoubtedly cause student to go hungry” and put school meal programs at risk.
Advocates argue that school meal programs are even more important after the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared a year ago that it would provide universal free lunches through the school year to millions of children who are suffering from hunger and food insecurity.
The School Nutrition Association spokeswoman Diane Pratt Heavner said that while the funding of reduced-price and free lunch programs has been very valuable, school nutrition waivers are still necessary. Schools are protected from being penalized when they fail to meet certain regulations due to supply chain shortages. For example, schools can be granted waivers that allow them to serve specific food types that comply with nutritional guidelines.
Pratt-Heavner stated that she has spoken with school meal program operators who have had difficulty procuring milk. This is not because they are short of it, but because the materials to make the pint-sized cartons are harder to find. They had to resort to water or juice as substitutes.
She stated that there is bipartisan support for the idea. “We worked with Republicans on the issue and are surprised that the waiver extension language wasn’t included in the spending bill,” she said.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers debate whether to continue funding programs that have benefited from the pandemic since its onset.
The office of Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did not respond immediately to reports he was against funding and extending school nutritional waivers.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, Kate Waters, stated Wednesday that while the agency was “disappointed” by Congress’s inaction, it will “continue doing everything possible to support leaders of these programs during this difficult period.”
The Washington Post was informed earlier this week by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, that the failure of Republicans respond to this means that children will have less to eat.
School meal programs have been a traditional way to help children with lower incomes. According to the USDA, almost 100,000 schools provided lunches for 29.6 million students each day prior to the pandemic. This number dropped significantly as schools were closed during the pandemic. However, the USDA estimates that more than 98 per cent of all participants now receive free or reduced-price lunches. In 2021, 8.4 million students received such meals.
Advocates state that there are still concerns. Will families who have relied on school meals for free during the pandemic, but aren’t familiar with the application process, get the help they need to make sure their children qualify? What happens if schools have to increase the cost of meals or are subject to penalties for not being able to obtain certain items? Will hungry children fall through the cracks?
“Schools are already under too much pressure,” Lisa Davis (senior vice president at Share Our Strength), an anti-hunger charity said Wednesday in a statement. “Today, Congress made their job even more difficult.”
