For the last two years, breakfast and lunch has been provided free to all students attending public schools.
For USD 257 schools in Iola, that has meant an additional 123 students taking advantage of the free meals, Robert Vicin, a regional manager with the district’s food service program, OPAA, told school board members Monday night.
In 2019-2020, the schools served an average 1,081 meals a week. From 2020 to 2022, the numbers have jumped to 1,204 a week. A breakfast might be pancakes, sausage and milk. Lunch fare could include pizza, salad, applesauce and milk.
Nationwide, the free meals benefited 30 million kids, up 10 million from before the pandemic.
For some of our children, that’s the most nutritious food they’ll eat all day.
Congress approved the free breakfast and lunch waivers as part of its response to COVID-19 when so many people lost their jobs.
In March, Congress did not renew the waivers when it negotiated the $1.5 trillion spending bill.
The $11 billion price tag was too high, conservatives argued. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., was a hard “no” on the matter.
After all, the pandemic-era aid was never meant to be permanent, though child hunger certainly is. Roughly 1 in 7 American children live in food-insecure households.
In Iola, an estimated 55% of students qualify for either free or reduced-priced meals at their schools, according to Judy Baker, USD 257 Food Services Director.
Eliminating the free meals will especially hurt those “right on the edge” of qualifying for the subsidies, Baker said.
“It really saddens me that they didn’t continue the waiver,” she said. “So many local families will be impacted.”
With inflation hitting the price of food especially hard, the cuts couldn’t come at a worse time.
Schools expected at least one more year of the extra funding for the free meals.
Besides providing free meals, the program’s no-questions-asked approach was a boon for both families and school administrators.
