LOCAL

Feds allow summer food programs to continue for entire school year

Rita Price
The Columbus Dispatch
Children's Hunger Alliance and Americorps Hunger Free America staffer Sara Mohamednour offers bagels to Janae Johnson outside St. Stephens Community House in the Linden area this summer. Groups that have been providing meals through the USDA summer food service program now can continue throughout the school year.

Advocates for low-income families are cheering a decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that will allow summer meal programs to feed children throughout the 2020-21 school year.

The effort typically ends when students return to school, where they can receive free breakfast and lunch. But with the COVID-19 pandemic simmering and many classrooms still operating remotely — at least part of the time — hundreds of local, state and national groups have been urging the federal government to extend the assistance.

Luis Guardia, president of the Washington-based Food Research & Action Center, said that by heeding the calls, the USDA is helping to ensure that millions of children have access to the nutrition they need regardless of their remote- or hybrid-learning setting.

"Obviously, this is a positive, for lots of reasons," Judy Mobley, president and CEO of the Children's Hunger Alliance, said Tuesday. "We're really pleased to know what we're OK through the end of the school year."

The Alliance, which is based in Columbus, is among several organizations across the country that expanded dramatically when schools closed this spring so poor children still would receive federally-funded meals during the pandemic. 

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue had announced that the waivers allowing the summer-nutrition programs to operate earlier this year would expire Aug. 31. The USDA then extended approval through the end of the year. Now, federal officials say the programs can continue through June 30.

Less certain is the future of so-called Pandemic EBT, which has provided money to families whose children qualified for free meals at school. About 850,000 Ohio children had been eligible for $5.70 each day that school was closed due to the coronavirus.

Those electronic benefit transfers are authorized through the rest of the school year, but the USDA has told states to wait for additional guidance before submitting plans for October and beyond.

Initial guidelines for Pandemic EBT don't easily apply now that many districts are taking a hybrid approach to classes — some remotely and some in-person, depending on the day.

"They have to be out of school for five consecutive days to be eligible," said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. "That makes it really hard to calculate."

rprice@dispatch.com

@RitaPrice