The US Department of Agriculture has extended access to free school meals.
The USDA says it has extended all waivers through the Child Nutrition Program, essentially extending free meals through June 2022, regardless of parents’ ability to pay. There are six waivers involved:
*The Seamless Summer Option allows schools to serve free meals to all children, regardless of location, in a streamlined way between the regular school year and out-of-school times;
*The Area Eligibility waiver allows sites in areas that would not meet normally meet the eligibility threshold to provide meals and waives area eligibility for family child care homes;
*Meal Pattern Flexibility allows for flexibility in meeting the meal pattern requirements in specific situations;
*The Non-Congregate waiver allows grab-and-go meals, which are not usually permitted under the Summer Food Service Program
*The Meal Service Times waiver allows for multiple meals to be served at once and for meals to be served outside of standard meal times;
*The Parent/Guardian Pick Up waiver allows a parent or guardian to pick up meals to take home to children.
The USDA says the Summer Food Service Program has led to over 53 million meals served between March 2020 and March 2021. Click here for more information.
