Feds extend free school meals for all students during COVID-19 pandemic
Updated Sept. 1
The federal government will continue to allow all public school students, including those in North Carolina, to get free school meals even if they don’t normally qualify for the benefit.
Public schools can normally only serve free meals to lower-income students, but that restriction was lifted during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The waiver was set to expire Monday, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture says it’s extending the free meal flexibility until federal funding runs out, which currently could be late as Dec. 31.
“As our nation reopens and people return to work, it remains critical our children continue to receive safe, healthy, and nutritious food,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a news release Monday. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, USDA has provided an unprecedented amount of flexibilities to help schools feed kids through the school meal programs, and today, we are also extending summer meal program flexibilities for as long as we can, legally and financially,”
Perdue said students would be eligible regardless of whether they’re attending classes on campus or virtually. More than 70% of North Carolina’s 1.5 million public school students started the school year using remote instruction instead of in-person classes.
School districts across the country set up emergency feeding programs when schools were closed in the spring due to COVID-19 concerns. Schools were given federal flexibility on where and when meals could be served as well as expanding who could be served.
But with the federal waiver set to expire at the end of August, school districts have been warning families they’d have to begin paying this week if they didn’t qualify for free-or-reduced-price meals.
Wake County, Durham Public Schools and Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools say they will now be able to continue giving free meals to all students.
“We are pleased and appreciative of that ruling from the USDA,” Wake County school board chairman Keith Sutton said at Tuesday’s board meeting.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 2:28 PM with the headline "Feds extend free school meals for all students during COVID-19 pandemic."
