USDA extends program providing free meals to children
WASHINGTON (KION) The US Department of Agriculture announced that it will extend flexibilities to allow its summer meal program, which serves free meals to all children, to continue through the end of the year.
The goal of the extension is to allow children to have continued access to food during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We appreciate the incredible efforts by our school foodservice professionals year in and year out, but this year we have an unprecedented situation. This extension of summer program authority will employ summer program sponsors to ensure meals are reaching all children – whether they are learning in the classroom or virtually – so they are fed and ready to learn, even in new and ever-changing learning environments,” said US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.
The program allows Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option meals to be served in all areas at no cost, allows meals to be served outside of group settings and normally-required meal times, waives meal pattern requirements as necessary and allows parents or guardians to pick up meals for their children.
The USDA said it has had requests to fund the program for the entire 2020-2021 school year, but Congress did not authorize enough funding to allow for that. The new end date is Dec. 31.
