Hot Topic: School Meal Waivers

2022-06-22

The end of school meal waivers continues to be a hot topic in the news. SNA has put together a round-up of a few articles regarding this topic. These are a great resource to share on your own social media channels to inform your community about the challenges school meal operations will face during SY2022-23.

Check back as we continue to add additional news stories to this list.

• Spectrum News: “U.S. school cafeterias face funding cutbacks as food prices spike” | June 21, 2022
  Uncertainty is on the menu in school cafeterias across the country. Schools, already wrestling with higher food prices and supply chain disruptions, are about to lose special funding that allowed them to serve more students during the pandemic. Read the Story
• CNN: “Last summer, this school district served kids 36,000 meals a week. This summer, it will be lucky to serve 600 a week. Here's why.” | June 19, 2022
  Last summer, Shenae Rowe was able to provide 36,000 meals a week to hungry kids throughout Warrick County in rural southwest Indiana. Parents could pick up a week’s worth of food in one trip to take home. This summer, the Warrick school district’s director of food and nutrition is hoping to serve 600 meals a week. … “It makes my heart break,” Rowe said. “We got to help so many families.” Read the Article
• NBC News: “Free school lunches for all set to end, creating ‘perfect storm’ amid high inflation” | June 18, 2022
  Congressional child nutrition waivers that allowed for free meals in school and other food assistance measures are expiring June 30. Advocates say it couldn’t come at a worse time. Read the Article.
• Food & Environment Reporting Network: “Advocates say a hungry summer looms if Congress can’t extend school meal waivers” | June 17, 2022
  Summer is always the hungry season for America’s children — when school is not in session, many students don’t get enough to eat. But anti-hunger groups are warning this summer could be worse than usual, since many schools have been forced to scale back or eliminate their summer meals programs because the waivers that vastly expanded access to school food during the pandemic are set to expire on June 30, unless Congress takes action. Read the Article
• NPR: “Going backwards on child poverty" | June 16, 2022
  As the school year ends, so have some of the pandemic-era relief measures for families with children. For two years, U.S. public schools provided free meals for all students. But that's stopping at the end of June. The expanded child tax credit also expired in December of last year. The ending of these temporary benefits leaves families vulnerable in a period of high inflation, and threatens to further erode progress made in reducing child poverty during the pandemic. Hear the Story
• Spectrum 1 News: “Advocates warn school lunch programs will lose money without congressional action”| June 2, 2022
  Michael Gasper has been working in school nutrition services for almost 15 years. He’s now among a group of advocates trying to warn parents in his Wisconsin district and members of Congress that student meal programs will suffer and some children could go hungry if lawmakers fail to act. “We don’t know what the reimbursement rate is going to be for next year, whether there’s going to be free meals or not free meals, we don’t know, which has made it very difficult for us to do our budgets,” Gasper said. Read the Story