Free or reduced lunch applications will be due in mid-July according to the MCCSC Food Services website.
(WFIU/WTIU News)
A pandemic child nutritional waiver that allowed schools to provide all students with free meals is set to expire at the end of the month.
In April of 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) established a waiver that allowed the National School Lunch Program Seamless Summer Option to operate during the regular school year.
TheSeamless Summer Option allows schools to serve children under age 18 in low-income areas with free meals. The federal waiver is available to all schools, regardless of their location or type of Seamless Summer Option site.
According to theFNS, allowing schools to participate in the Seamless Summer Option during the regular school year during COVID-19 operations allows schools to safely provide meals by eliminating the need to collect meal payments, including cash, at meal sites.
This allowed faster meal service, reducing contact and exposure to COVID-19.
Schools also had greater flexibility to distribute meals at a variety of meal sites that serve a smaller number of children instead of confirming each student’s enrollment status and eligibility at one location.
Additionally, the waiver allowed schools to implement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for safe school meal service, which included classroom and outdoor meal service.
In March, Congress failed to pass a measure that would extend the waivers in a $1.5 trillion budget package, according to anarticle from Education Week.
In the 2022-2023 school year, Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) will once again follow the federal guidelines of the child nutrition program according to the MCCSC Food Services website.
Parents who want to apply for free or reduced lunch for their students, will need to complete an application, available online or on paper, which will become available in mid-July.
Over the past two years, MCCSC Director of Food Services Matt Tomrell said, all the roughly 10,500 students in MCCSC were entitled to free breakfast and lunch.
“We've been averaging about 7,800 meals daily, that's both breakfast and lunch, you know, during this past year,” Tomrell said.
Tomrell said the MCCSC food service program is financially self-sustaining and that the corporation would do what it could with state-provided entitlements to ensure prices aren’t raised unnecessarily.
“We will probably see a modest increase in the paid price for breakfast and lunch,” Tomrell said. “But we haven't seen an increase in that price since the 2019 school year.”
Tomrell said MCCSC plans to continue feeding students in the school corporation and wants to have minimal impact.
“We believe that we've positioned ourselves to be successful and to provide the breakfast and lunch that our students need to thrive in school.” Tomrell said.
Holly Lawson, deputy director of communications for the Indiana Department of Education, said the department has provided guidance to schools regarding the waiver expiration. The department, she said, is also working with school districts seeking additional support.
