ROANOKE, Va. – Some parents struggled to keep food on the table since the beginning of the pandemic, and these organizations are pushing for a potential solution.
“Congress stepped up in a bi-partisan fashion and said, ‘you know what, we want to make it as easy as possible for schools to provide nutritious food to children,’ Dr. Richard Besser, President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said. “What they said was, every child that was in school can get a free lunch every single day.”
For some students, these meal waivers provided meals that were their only source of food.
“We must have a national action plan,” Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Foundation said. “For now, the extension of these waivers at the federal level is very critical, and we call for the same bi-partisan support that extended these waivers through the summer.”
School meal waivers helped take a burden off of parents who struggled to put food on the table, but now that help could be coming to an end.
“There’s a chance that we could slip back into a situation that is much worse for our children, and we don’t want to let that happen,” Besser said.
But with the help of the American Heart Association alongside the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, that all may change.
“We are calling on Congress to extend the waivers through the end of this school year, while we continue to address the issue of food insecurity in this country,” Brown said.
These organizations hope that by renewing these waivers, they can improve classroom performance, as well as decrease the stigma surrounding free and reduced lunch.
“This is really an investment in all of us, in our future by ensuring that for at least that meal, every child is having something that’s nutritious,” Besser said.
If Congress wants to keep these waivers for this school year, they will need to vote to extend the program before school starts in August.
