While the immediate public health threat of COVID-19 has passed, schools are panicking over how to feed kids as they struggle to provide meals with less funding.
of meals were provided to tens of millions of hungry kids. But, when the omnibus package that funds the government for Fiscal Year 2022 was introduced last month, an extension of the funding for school meal waivers wasn’t part of it. Instead, schools faced a looming deadline: the waivers are set to expire June 30.
for failing to include the waiver extensions in its $22 billion COVID-19 supplemental budget request. Even with the waivers in place, school lunch program operators say it’s increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Morales’ cost of paper goods, like napkins, has surged upwards of 60% since 2019; while her food costs are up 40%. The increased federal reimbursement rate, while crucial, offered her no more than a 30% boost, “which doesn’t match the increases on your costs,” she says.
Diane Pratt-Heavner, director of media relations of the School Nutrition Association, says that if the waivers are allowed to expire entirely, it will be financially devastating to schools. “Losing the waivers would be a double hit financially,” says Pratt-Heavner. “Not only would they lose that higher reimbursement rate, but they would see their meal participation decline, because the meals are no longer free for all students. And the fewer meals you serve, the higher per-meal costs.
Stabenow and Murkowski need to amass 60 total Senate supporters to pass the Senate’s filibuster threshold. “We have 50 members that are supporting extending these critically important flexibilities to feed children both in the summer as well as the school year,” Stabenow tells TIME.
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