Schools are keeping kids fed, losing millions of dollars in the process. They fear they will have to make deep cuts next year, when the country is still reeling.
In communities around the country, schools may be the only institutions making sure that hungry children and their families are fed. They’ve opened grab-and-go lunch stations and started delivering meals to neighborhoods by bus. But some programs are also going broke, losing millions of dollars. School administrators fear that they’ll have to make deep cuts next year if the federal government doesn’t provide relief.
Related Video: School Lunch Programs Continue During Coronavirus ClosuresUnless the federal government steps in, school nutrition administrators worry they will have to make deep cuts next year, even as families continue to need their services. Advocates who work for organizations like the School Nutrition Association and the Urban School Food Alliance are lobbying the Department of Agriculture, which oversees school lunch programs, and Congress to provide enhanced relief.
Schools are still paying school nutrition workers, sometimes extra as the job becomes increasingly hazardous. They’re working to provide families with days’ worth of meals in an effort to minimize contact, which requires expensive packaging. Some schools are attempting to provide families with shelf-stable items, which cost more, in case they lack refrigeration.
But reimbursement for these meals isn’t nearly enough to make up for the additional costs they’ve incurred. The program sends buses to pick kids up from their community school ― typically within walking distance of their home ― to bring them to one of their 22 central food sites. They’re keeping all their school nutrition workers on payroll ― whether working or not ― and paying extra to those on the front lines.
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