On August 31st in a USDA press release, Secretary of Agriculture Dr. Sonny Perdue announced that the USDA is to extend several flexibilities to allow summer meal program operators to continue serving free meals to all children through December 31st 2020. This decision will help ensure that children have access to nutritious food as the country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. USDA is using the funding appropriated by Congress in accordance with the mission of the Department. 

Secretary Perdue commented, “as our nation reopens and people return to work, it remains critical that our children continue to receive safe, healthy, and nutritious food. During the COVID-19 pandemic, USDA provided unprecedented help to schools to feed children through school meal programs. Today, we are extending summer meal program flexibilities for as long as we can, both legally and financially,” Perdue added “we appreciate the incredible efforts by our school foodservice professionals year-in and year- out, but this year we have an unprecedented situation. This extension of summer program authority will employ summer program sponsors to ensure that meals are reaching all children – whether they are learning in the classroom or virtually – so they are fed and ready to learn, even in new and ever-changing learning environments.”

Lindsay Aguilar, Director of Food Services for Tucson, AZ. Unified School District,  endorsed the USDA decision stating “this announcement brings a huge relief to our school meal program and the community we serve.” She added “many of our families who might not qualify for free meals are still going through a tough time and are worried about how to keep food on the table. Now their children will have one less thing to worry about as they adjust to evolving in-school and remote learning scenarios. These waivers also eliminate a massive administrative burden for our school nutrition staff, allowing them to focus on feeding children.”