LM June-July 2022_hi

KidsFed ... cont’d.

It’s only for this summer and for this school year. The bill was very clear that USDA’s authority to issue these waivers for the summer will expire in September of 2022 and their authority to issue the waivers for the school year will end in June of 2023. We may be looking at the very same problem when we need extensions of these waivers once again. We’re going to have to cross when we get there. Is the lawonly ineffect for the2022–23 school year or could it beextended beyond that? Does theKeepKids FedActmakeany changes for districts that qualify for the CommunityEligibilityProvision? No, it does not. USDA has separately, outside of the bill, extended the deadline for districts that want to participate in the Community Eligibility Provision. A lot of districts have now experienced how much easier it is just to serve all meals to all kids at no cost, so I think there’s going to be more interest in this option. Any recommendations for superintendents onhowto communicatewhat this lawdoes tostudentsand families? I think all superintendents know when it comes to communications with families to not get too into the details. What I really want families and parents to understand is that these decisions are completely outside of superintendent’s control. I think if a superintendent had the option they would be feeding all kids at no cost, right? My recommendation in the in the communications would be to explain that this is not their decision. When in doubt, blame Congress. Since the podcast was recorded, the USDA issued or extended six waivers for Summer 2022. Click here to read a blog post from AASA about what this development means for schools. USDAExtendsNumerousWaivers RECENT UPDATE:

We have to wait on the USDA to officially issue these waivers, but we’re really confident that they’re going to do so and do so quickly. The most important waiver is the meal-pattern requirement waiver, which will be in effect for the entire school year of 22-23. This means that a school will not be penalized for not being able to meet those certain requirements due to the supply chain. For example, if a school isn’t able to provide three different subgroups of vegetables or they do not have a whole wheat tortilla that week, they’re not going to be held fiscally responsible for that. They’ll still be able to receive that reimbursement rate and not be penalized for something that’s completely out of their control. What flexibilitieswill school districts have if theyencounter supply chain issues? Will school districts still be required to meet specific nutrition requirements? They’re going to be expected to meet the nutrition requirements as best as they can. At the end of the day, if they can’t meet them they’re not going to have their reimbursement kept from them. Howdoes the lawimpact summer meal programs? Honestly, it has the most impact on the summer feeding program. The bill extended the USDA’s authority to issue all waivers for the summer food service program and for the seamless summer option. That includes area eligibility, which allows schools to essentially serve all sites. Usually with area eligibility, you’d only be able to have meal sites in places where you meet that 50 percent or more threshold of low- income students. Right now with the waiver, you can basically serve all sites. We’re still waiting on the non-congregate waiver and then the parent pickup and guardian pickup, so schools can continue with that delivery model, which we’ve seen has been really critical in navigating labor shortages. Basically, all of these kinds of creative things that we’ve seen schools do over the past few years they’ll be able to continue to do that for the summer.

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14 LM Summer 2022