OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — While President Joe Biden has signed some federal supports for child meal programs into law, cities across the nation are scrambling to prevent an accelerating child hunger crisis that worsened during the pandemic.
Biden signed the Keep Kids Fed Act on Saturday, extending some of the free school lunch aid activated during the pandemic for public school students. This bill passed despite the efforts of some Republicans, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who opposed extending waivers for food programs. Some objected on the grounds that the Agriculture Department disallows LGBTQ discrimination in any program that receives federal nutrition money.
With part of the federal program surviving past June 30, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack wrote in a statement, “Throughout the pandemic, the school nutrition professionals who feed our children faced enormous challenges, which persist today, and they desperately need additional resources and continued flexibilities. The deal passed by Congress will ease some of the uncertainty and provide partial relief to our schools, summer sites and child care feeding programs.”
While the bill renews some provisions that would have expired Thursday, it does not extend the entire program.
The USDA received authority to implement waivers allowing child nutrition programs to forego some safety requirements in March 2020, under the Trump administration. Waivers allowed flexibility for school districts, for example by allowing them to provide multiple meals to be picked up at one time and removing requirements that students eat in a cafeteria. The USDA Universal Free Meals program began last April under the Biden administration to support growing numbers of students and families, who were more likely to need free meals.
The new law extends waivers through the summer to allow meal deliveries and grab-and-go options for students. But suspended eligibility requirements for free meals were not retained, which effectively curtails the universal free meal policy. According to NPR, some schools are preparing to raise meal prices and families who paid for meals before the pandemic will pay more once the waivers expire. And child nutrition programs are still suffering from reduced federal reimbursements and increased costs, according to Food Research and Action Center.
Prior to the pandemic, 14.8% of households with children were food-insecure. Experts say pre-existing racial disparities are exacerbated by slower financial recovery among communities of color. Feeding America, a nonprofit network of food banks, estimated that during 2021, one in five Black Americans experienced food insecurity compared to one in nine white individuals.
Major cities across the West are scrambling to fill ongoing service gaps. In Portland, Oregon, the city school district and city parks department will offer daily lunch and activities in parks until August 19. Lunch is free for all children, but grab-and-go meals are no longer available because students must be present to receive food.
SUN Community School Food Pantries, partnering with Oregon Food Bank, said it will still provide up to five days of food to families on evenings, weekends and other non-school days.
Portland Public Schools Nutrition Services senior director Whitney Ellersick said now that Biden signed the Keep Kids Fed Act, “We will need to learn what this means and how states will interpret this new guidance for the summer and new school year.”
According to one USDA report on food insecurity. nearly one in seven Oregon households were “food insecure” between 2014 and 2016. About 1 in 4 children are from low-income, food-insecure homes and approximately 315,000 students across Oregon are eligible for free or reduced price meals, per Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. About 43,000 children benefited from $591 million in meal assistance between 2020 and 2021, including $234,000 in grants for schools and nonprofits.
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