Thread: Schools hamstrung over feeding students as coronavirus leads to closures

Schools hamstrung over feeding students as coronavirus leads to closures

USDA can make some exceptions to its meals programs but most districts will have to fend for themselves on how to feed poor students.




A third-grader pays for lunch in Santa Fe, N.M. Officials are growing increasingly anxious over how to keep feeding the nearly 22 million students who depend on subsidized breakfasts and lunches served at schools. | Morgan Lee/AP Photo

By LIZ CRAMPTON
03/10/2020 04:30 AM EDT
Updated: 03/10/2020 04:54 PM EDT

There is no Meals on Wheels system for delivering food door-to-door to low-income students.

School officials are growing increasingly anxious over how to keep feeding the nearly 22 million students who depend on subsidized breakfasts and lunches served at schools in the event facilities shut down to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Schools in Washington state, California and New York have temporarily closed their doors amid local outbreaks, and officials warn that more are likely to follow as the governments grapple with how to contain the virus.

Districts where an especially huge swath of students live in poverty, including Los Angeles and New York City, are holding off on closing in part because of concern about how to keep kids fed. But in the interest of public safety, they may not have a choice but to shut down.

"Schools should be thinking about what they're going to do if they're going to close and how they're going to ensure that their students nutritional needs are going to be met," said Crystal FitzSimons, director of School and Out-of-School Time Programs at the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit organization tackling hunger issues.

States can tinker with how to keep delivering meals. Over the weekend, the Agriculture Department, which manages school nutrition programs, said schools that are forced to close can switch to different programs used during summer months that serve low-income children.

USDA, on a state-by-state basis, said it will waive the requirement that students must eat in group settings. The department will also allow meals to be served at off-campus sites like libraries and churches. Washington and California have already received such approvals.

But that allowance only covers areas where more than 50 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals. Many districts have individual schools that have high-poverty rates even if the entire area doesn't, so the policy may leave many needy students in a lurch.

USDA has experience with helping schools adjust to unexpected closures that last for a few days, like after natural disasters. But the coronavirus outbreak presents special challenges because of the recommendations to avoid social contact or gather large crowds.

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In response, school administrators and nutrition groups are pressuring the federal government to expand eligibility so that more children can receive meals in case of extended closings. The recommended quarantine period is at least 14 days from exposure but affected areas could be closed for longer if the public health emergency persists.

That could lead to a hodgepodge of ways that school districts try to distribute meals.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Monday afternoon addressed the School Nutrition Association's legislative conference, where attendees and speakers were debating how their members will serve schools amid the outbreaks.

“If schools are closed, we are going to the very best we can with the tools we have to get those kids fed,” Perdue told the crowd.

But Perdue said the department’s hands are tied by law when it comes to determining which areas are eligible for exceptions during closings.

“We’re going to be as flexible as we absolutely can with the regulations that food and nutrition services have,” he said. “It’s not because we don’t want to, it’s because those statutes don’t allow that discretion from USDA.”

If there is an outbreak of the coronavirus in a community, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended schools avoid handing out food in crowded settings and consider “grab-and-go” bagged lunches or meal delivery.

FitzSimons suggested that USDA consider issuing broad waivers from school meal requirements to allow students to pick up multiple meals at a time.

But she pointed out that having students travel daily to receive food presents hardships, and doesn't track with recommendations from public health officials that people distance themselves from social situations.

“It's a local decision,” Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC told senators of closing schools last week while pointing to recently issued CDC interim guidance for local schools and child care facilities.

“The general principle is to minimize disruption,” she said. “You have this balance between the earlier you act, the more impact it can have in slowing the spread — and the enormous disruption we see with school closures.”

So far, closings have been scattered in small clusters across the country. In Chicago, authorities closed a high school for roughly 200 special needs students through this week after a classroom assistant who vacationed aboard the stricken Grand Princess cruise ship returned a presumptive positive test for Covid-19.

Those who visited the school since Feb. 25 are being told to not leave their homes through March 18, but Chicago Public Schools says it is an isolated incident that presents low immediate risks to the broader school system.

Schools in California and Washington have faced broader disruption.

California’s Elk Grove Unified School District, which has nearly 64,000 students in Sacramento County, announced Monday that classes will be canceled through Friday. It is the largest closure of schools in the nation due to coronavirus thus far.

Northshore School District near Seattle opted to hold online courses for its 23,000 students during its shutdown period, allowing the district to stick with its current meal program. Students can place orders online for meals to be picked up the next day at one of 22 locations.

In New York, any school where a student tests positive for the coronavirus will shut down for a minimum of 24 hours to allow for cleaning the school facilities, investigation of the individual case and determination whether an extended closing is necessary. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that the city will find other ways to get meals to students who need them in event of shutdowns. But he said the city is trying to avoid closures and sees it as a last resort.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...losures-124761

The coronavirus will cause a child care crisis in America

Poor families get welfare and food stamps. Pack your childs lunch and get yourself on birth control if you cannot afford to feed your own family. Awful thing to do to your own child.

Parents should be tending to their own children's nutritional needs not having fun making more mouths they cannot feed.