Congressional waivers that made school meals free during the pandemic will expire this month, placing as many as 1.4 million Texan children at risk of losing food when many people are struggling with rising prices and high inflation rates, according to Feeding America.
The Child Nutrition COVID-19 Waivers were approved by Congress and issued through the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2020 at the beginning of the Pandemic.
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The waivers allowed all students to eat breakfast and lunch at school for free.
“I think we’re going to see in real-time the summer hunger crisis grow, and that’s going to give us a preview of what’s going to happen next school year,” Jillien Meier, Director of No Kid Hungry, told The Guardian.
The program was initially passed in March 2020 at the beginning of the Pandemic, then was extended in 2021.
States like California have passed free school meal programs, and other states, like Colorado, New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont, have recently introduced legislation to pay for free school meals, according to The Guardian.
Many San Antonio schools participate in the Seamless Summer Feeding Program that provides meals during the summer in districts with a large demographic of free-meal eligible students. That program is separate from the Child Nutrition COVID-19 Waivers. If the waiver program is not renewed, it would mean students who are not eligible for free meals based on low income will be charged for meals when school starts again in the fall.
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