USDA’s Vilsack Urges Governors To Consider Tools To Support School Meals

School systems nationwide are facing challenges in providing meals to students due to lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues and labor shortages. To address these concerns, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently sent a letter to all state governors requesting that they consider all funding options to ensure students receive the nutritional support they need, particularly since some of the flexibilities in overseeing school nutrition during the pandemic have now ended for the 2022-2023 school year.

“The past few years have been challenging for schools, but time and time again, I have seen school nutrition and education professionals across the country rise to the occasion to ensure children had access to nutritious meals,” Vilsack said. “Even though USDA now has fewer tools to support program operators, I am committed to fully leveraging those we have by providing operational flexibilities and some additional funding to ease the transition back to standard operations.”

He urged governors to prioritize support for the following options:

1. Leverage state and local resources to support school meals. Using their own resources, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada and Vermont have taken steps to continue providing free meals to all needy children for the coming school year. Other states and localities have expanded access to free meals beyond the federal income limits, and some are investing resources to improve training and kitchen infrastructure, expand Farm to School efforts, or incentivize the use of local foods.
2. Seek out other federal funds that can be used to support Child Nutrition programs. Such funds can include those under the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief and Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund programs.
3. Engage with school districts to better support the school food service workforce. States and school districts should work to develop and support a vibrant food service workforce, and to train and compensate these incredibly dedicated staff appropriately, to sustain a strong school meals program.
4. Maximize the use of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and direct certification. CEP allows schools in high-poverty areas to offer school meals at no cost to all students without the burden of collecting applications from families. Vilsack added that CEP is an effective tool to reduce burden on schools and families, reduce stigma surrounding free meals, avoid unpaid meal debt and expand the number of children eating healthy school meals. Direct certification allows states to certify children for free and reduced priced meals based on receipt of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits with no action required by the household and minimal effort on the part of schools. Some 26 states currently participate in the Direct Certification with Medicaid Demonstration Project, and USDA is accepting applications through Sept. 30 for new states to participate in the project.

We’ll be watching closely to see if states take advantage of these options going forward.

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