IARN — The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday announced a nationwide extension of several waivers that allow all children to continue receiving nutritious meals this summer when schools are out of session.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says USDA is extending these waivers to provide local program operators with clarity and certainty for the summer months ahead, when many children cannot access the school meals they depend on during the academic year. The waivers were previously extended only through June 30, 2021.
“I am announcing today an extension of those waivers through September 30th of 2021,” Vilsack said. “That means free meals for all with no need to pay. It means bulk distributions, parent pickup and nutritional standards in place as per the additional waiver. Over the course of the next several weeks, we are going to look at whether or not there can be a further extension across the school year for 2021/2022. We hope to be able to make some decisions on that sometime during the month of April.”
Sarah Smith-Holmes, acting Deputy Administrator for Child Nutrition Programs, lists all the pandemic waivers for school meals that USDA has extended through the summer.
“Here are our extended flexibilities for summer 2021,” Smith-Holmes said. “Specifically, we are extending flexibilities related to area eligibility, non-congregate feeding, parent and guardian pickup of meals for children, meal pattern flexibilities, area eligibility for closed enrolled sites, first week site visits, meal service time restriction, and offered versus served. These extensions are for summer 2021 operations and go through September 30, 2021.”
USDA says up to 12 million children are living in households where they may not always have enough to eat. These critically needed summer meals will provide relief to many children in families who have been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and are fighting daily to put food on the table.
To learn more about how the program works and the role of sponsors and meal sites, visit www.fns.usda.gov/sfsp/how-become-sponsor.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network
