Congress passed the bipartisan “Keep Kids Fed” Act last Friday — a bill aimed to mitigate the loss of the federal nutrition waivers that expired on June 30, 2022.
This bill seeks to streamline access to healthy meals for children in schools and child care centers and provide relief for child care facilities and schools coping with supply-chain issues and inflation.
The waivers were initially created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2020, joining several other federal pandemic relief programs. Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, co-sponsored the legislation.
“Not only is this the right thing to do, but ensuring all students are fed sets them up for success in the classroom and beyond. I am pleased I was able to vote with my colleagues in the House to keep our children fed, and I will continue this fight to make sure this issue is resolved before the school meal waivers expire June 30,” Axne said in a press release on June 23.
Key features of the Keep Kids Fed Act are:
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- Extending USDA authority to issue meal pattern waivers through June 30, 2022, summer nutrition waivers through Sept. 30, 2022 and non-cost waivers through the 2022-2023 school year.
- Increasing school breakfast reimbursement by 15 cents and school lunch reimbursement by 40 cents.
- Extending area eligibility test waivers to allow child care centers to receive higher Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) reimbursement.
- Increasing CACFP reimbursements by 10 cents for each meal and snack that child care and after-school programs provide.
A micro-report by No Kid Hungry estimated that 75,000 Iowa children would lose access to school meals if the waivers expired on June 30. On a local scale, Scott County CACFP partners claimed 88,688 meals and snacks for reimbursement this May.
Though the Senate intended to extend the previous USDA waivers — which allowed students to eat school meals for free, regardless of family income — within the bill, Congress removed the provision from the final agreement.
“It was disappointing that they didn’t allow for a universally-free program. That’s what we would prefer,” Conni Dobbels, supervisor of Davenport Community School District’s food and nutrition services, said.
Families must now return to filling out applications to qualify, leading some to criticize the Keep Kids Fed Act as a ‘band-aid’ solution to the larger issue of student food security.
“They’re leaving out a group of students that don’t qualify for free or reduced meals — those are who I’m concerned about having access to meals,” Dobbels said. “We constantly see price increases in grocery stores and gas stations. I’m afraid these kids are going to be sent to school with no money to pay for their meals, and now they’re unable to get free meals at school.”
Still, Dobbels said that with time, the bill will help school food-service operators and students.
“It’ll provide higher reimbursement rates to help keep programs going due to supply-chain issues and lack of staff,” she said. “The summer waivers came in too late for most school districts, including Davenport. We developed and applied for summer programs in March. For us to change now, we’d have to wait for state guidance then apply to the new waivers, and we only have about four weeks left of the program. It will help develop next year’s program.”
Dobbles said they’d served about 750 kids this summer.
The bill totals approximately $3 billion but was set as budget-neutral to ease concerns from Republican lawmakers about costliness.