Janelle Irwin Taylor
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Division of Food, Nutrition and Wellness will provide school meals to students displaced from the classroom as a result of the novel coronavirus.
The department announced its plan after news that all Florida K-12 schools will be closed through Monday, March 30 to prevent spreading the virus further.
“For millions of Florida’s children, schools meals are the only meals they can count on. We are working closely with school districts to ensure that students have access to healthy, nutritious meals while schools are closed due to COVID-19,” said Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.
“We are working with the USDA on authority to provide schools with flexible options to make school meals available. Most of all, we are standing with Florida’s schools and families to ensure no child goes hungry while schools are out.”
In the 2018-19 school year, Florida’s schools served 286,734,316 school lunches, of which 245,782,422 were free or reduced lunches. These schools served 2,908,335 Florida students, of which 2,089,852 were students receiving free or reduced lunches. FDACS is the state agency that funds Florida’s school lunch program, through $1.3 billion in federal funding.
While the department will make the option to provide alternative methods of delivering meals to students while schools are closed, individual districts will have to determine how or if they utilize that benefit.
The department of agriculture is leveraging the Summer BreakSpot community and other non-profit partners to ensure meals are available.
Families in need should contact their individual districts to find out how to receive meals.
The department of agriculture submitted waiver requests with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to utilize the Summer Food Service Program or National School Lunch Program Seamless Summer Option to provide meals during the unexpected closure. Those programs are typically used to provide student meals to low income families over summer vacation.
Last school year, Florida schools served more than 286 million school lunches, of which more than 245 million were free or reduced priced. Those meals served more than 2.9 million students, most of whom received free or reduced lunch benefits.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services funds Florida’s school lunch program through $1.3 billion in federal funding.
4 comments
Thomas Knapp
March 14, 2020 at 9:10 am
Let me see if I have this right:
1) “We’re canceling school because there’s a contagious disease going around and having the kids all come to one central place and mingle is a bad idea right now.”
2) “Hungry, kids? No problem — come to the central place and mingle!”
Joanne Goodwin
March 14, 2020 at 9:38 am
Thank you Nikki for doing what is right
Megan Truesdale
March 15, 2020 at 9:59 am
Would you be able to release information one where Childrens families can just go pick up the food for the kids ? Maybe provide the food bagged up for each child and for the week and have families drive up to pick up line and have the people with children open the truck without getting out of their cars and have the volunteers place the bags in the trunk to limit contact ?
C.Wolfe
March 15, 2020 at 10:43 am
Schools are closed “UNTIL” Monday, March 30, not “THROUGH” Monday, March 30 (for now).
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