In March, when restaurants, churches, gyms, schools, and many other businesses shut their doors due to COVID-19, no one knew for how long these restrictions would hold. Today, we know that the closure of many of these institutions is almost permanent, as they have shaped what life has grown to look like throughout 2020. One of the biggest challenges, and most contested of these closures, is that of schools.
For all students, schools are a place where so much intellectual and personal growth occurs. But, for many, school is also a place where children have meals that they can consistently rely on. In the 2014-15 school year, over 25 million students were eligible for either free or reduced-price lunch. That is about half of all students in the United States’ public school system, When remote learning began, a rush began to find a way to get kids the food that they need. There have undoubtedly been challenges to these school lunch adjustments due to the nature of COVID-19, especially in the way it affects poor communities and communities of color. Today, I highlight a few success stories in providing students with subsidized meals in a time when places of learning have shut their doors.
Federal Policy
In response to the ongoing pandemic, the US government has extended school lunch benefits to serve more students than they would under normal circumstances. The US Department of Agriculture is making this change, and say they will do so until funding for it runs out. This could mean it will be in effect through the end of the year. This waiver by the USDA allows schools to more liberally determine who can get lunches. In many schools across the country, all students can now qualify for free lunch if they need or want it.
Local School Lunch Initiatives
Along with federally sponsored programs, various nonprofit programs and organizations have taken the charge of providing K-12 students with affordable lunch even further. Because federal programs have expanded who is eligible for reduced price and free lunches, there are many families who have never qualified before and are not familiar with how to get these lunches. In addition to this, it is much more complicated to pick up food without school happening in-person. Initiatives like No Kid Hungry are responding to unique challenges like these. No Kid Hungry NC, a part of the No Kid Hungry campaign in North Carolina, has been making it easier for families to find pick-up and drive-thru locations for meals, as well as updates from partners that put together and deliver meals to these sites.
In addition to this, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is working under a new umbrella organization called the Carolina Hunger Initiative. This initiative was created in direct response to COVID-19 and supports the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. It focuses on sustaining the availability of meals for kids by inviting new restaurants and vendors to collaborate. The Carolina Hunger Initiative also helps No Kid Hungry NC to streamline information about where families should go to find these free lunches.
Without feeding our students, all our efforts to provide them with the best education possible are not completely effective. With more than 11 million children in the United States living in food-insecure homes, this issue is already one that requires immediate attention. Beyond this, COVID-19 presents new challenges, with employment in a very unstable place for many families. Without programs like the ones set out by the USDA and No Kid Hungry initiative, the United States would not be in the position it is in now with an infrastructure to feed the children that used to walk through its school doors.
What’s next for food insecurity and covid-19?
Beyond schools, food insecurity is affecting so many Americans right now. Across the country, food banks are partnering with schools and calling for more donations from individuals to ensure no one is going hungry right now. In addition, the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize winner, the World Food Programme, is recognized for its efforts to mitigate issues of food insecurity when numbers of people suffering from hunger are rising. Thus, hunger is not just an issue affecting our student population, but its effects must be addressed at a larger scale.
- Exploring Solutions to Generational Illiteracy in the United States - December 23, 2020
- The Impact of Biden’s Education Policy Plans - December 2, 2020
- Responding to Food Insecurity in a Pandemic: How We’re Getting it Right - November 13, 2020