Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is giving states, schools and childcare providers time to plan for how they will serve meals to children in the fall, including allowing for new and innovative feeding options. 

“As the country re-opens and schools prepare for the fall, a one-size-fits-all approach to meal service simply won’t cut it,” Perdue said. “The flexibilities announced today give states, schools, and child care providers the certainty they need to operate the USDA child nutrition programs in ways that make sense given their local, on-the-ground situations and ensure America’s children can count on meal service throughout the school year.” 

As fall nears, schools are considering many different learning models. This announcement empowers them to operate the School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program to best serve their students throughout the 2020-2021 school year. It also allows providers in the Child and Adult Care Food Program to tailor operations to serve the children in their care. USDA is providing flexibilities around meal patterns, group-setting requirements, meal service times, and parent/guardian pick-up of meals for kids across all three programs to address anticipated changes for the coming school year. 

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USDA is also announcing a new flexibility that waives the requirement for high schools to provide students the option to select some of the foods offered in a meal. While this practice, known as “offer versus serve” is encouraged, social distancing or meals-in-the-classroom models would make this regulatory requirement difficult. Collectively, these waivers reduce barriers to meal service options that support a transition back to normal operations while simultaneously responding to evolving local conditions.

“I thank Secretary Perdue for providing certainty to school food service operators that flexibilities will remain available through the upcoming school year as they re-design the way meals are provided to children when schools re-open,” said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, chairman of the Senate ag committee.

The following nationwide waivers will remain in effect through June 30, 2021 for the SBP, NSLP, and CACFP. These flexibilities allow for:

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The new waiver applies to the NSLP’s “offer versus serve” requirement for high schools, which would be difficult to execute while maintaining social distancing, particularly if meals are prepackaged for in-classroom or grab-and-go service.

FNS previously extended numerous waivers through the summer months to give summer program operators the continued flexibility they need to leverage innovative solutions in support of social distancing – such as delivery and grab n’ go – without interruption. These waivers ensure all children can access free meals throughout the summer. Families can use FNS’s Meals for Kids interactive site finder to locate free meals for children ages 18 and under this summer at 67,000 sites across the nation.

Source: USDA, Office of Sen. Pat Roberts, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.