NC education leaders urge continuation of free school meals for all students
North Carolina education leaders are urging the state’s two Republican U.S. senators to back bipartisan federal legislation that will allow schools to continue to provide free meals to all students.
Federal COVID-19 waivers that have allowed U.S. public schools to offer free breakfasts and lunches to all students regardless of family income will expire June 30. In joint letters to U.S. Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, State Superintendent Catherine Truitt and State Board of Education chairman Eric Davis urged them to support legislation that would extend the waivers to September 2023.
“The loss of these waivers will devastate school meal programs and threaten their sustainability,” Truitt and Davis wrote in a letter dated June 10. “School meals will be jeopardized for thousands of North Carolina students who depend upon them as their primary source of food during the week.
“While we all want to put the pandemic behind us and resume normal operations, school nutrition programs are not able to return to ‘business as usual’ for the 2022-23 school year.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has allowed schools to serve free meals to all children since the end of the 2019-20 school year. The waivers also provide higher reimbursement costs for schools for each meal served and flexibility in what food is served.
Senate Bill 3979, the “Support Kids not Red Tape Act of 2022,” has the support of 52 U.S. Senators to extend the waivers through the 2022-23 school year. But the legislation is stuck in committee.
School meal costs rise
At this month’s state board meeting, state leaders heard about the challenges school districts are facing from higher costs.
▪ Food costs have risen 25% to 40% in the past 18 to 24 months.
▪ Food preparation supply costs have doubled, to the point where some schools are asking students to bring their own trays.
▪ The surge in fuel prices is causing food delivery costs to double and in some cases triple.
▪ Salaries are going up to recruit and retain school cafeteria workers who can get higher-paying jobs elsewhere.
▪ Many school districts are raising meal prices to cover costs in what’s supposed to be a financially self-supporting program. For instance, the Wake County school system is raising meal prices by 25 cents for next school year.
”Many households, especially those with multiple children, will not be able to afford that increase in pricing,” Lynn Harvey, director of the state Department of Public Instruction’s school nutrition division, told the state board. “Yet there’s really no other option for additional funding to keep the program sustainable.”
Falling through the cracks
Unless the waivers are extended, families will need to apply again to their school to be eligible for free-and-reduced-price meals. Harvey said she’s worried that some families will fall through the cracks.
Gov. Roy Cooper has proposed $3.9 million in his budget to cover the cost that reduced-price students pay for meals. State education leaders are hoping that the General Assembly, which funded it before, will do so next school year.
The Wake County Board of Commissioners included in their budget an additional $40,000 to provide free breakfasts for all students in district schools.
But Harvey said there are many students from families who don’t qualify for subsidized meals who are at risk of going hungry if the waivers aren’t continued.
“Many households may have to choose between fueling their vehicles to go to work or providing meal money to students,” Harvey said. “We don’t want families to face that hardship.”
‘Prevent substantial financial losses’
In their letter to the senators, Davis and Truitt say failure to extend the waivers means “thousands of children in North Carolina will lose that access to school meals in the summer and during the school year.”
Given the supply chain challenges, Truitt and Davis say the waivers will also ensure schools aren’t penalized for failure to meet nutritional standards.
“Superintendents and school nutrition directors are doing their best to recover from pandemic conditions, but it will take more time for the marketplace to rebound and for the current economy to stabilize,” according to the letter.
“Continuation of the waivers for at least one more year is critical to ensure children have access to nutritious school meals, to support program sustainability and to prevent substantial financial losses for schools in our state.”
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 11:34 AM with the headline "NC education leaders urge continuation of free school meals for all students."
