Letter to the Hon. Sonny Perdue, Secretary of Agriculture - Maine Delegation Fights to Keep School and Community Meal Sites Open to Prevent Child Hunger

Letter

We write today in support of the Maine Department of Education's Child Nutrition Area
Eligibility Waiver application and request for an extension. This request, which was submitted
on May 7, 2020, is critical to maintaining children's access to meals during the COVID-19
pandemic. We ask the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and
Nutrition Service to continue providing much-needed flexibility throughout USDA's child
nutrition programs so that a nutrition gap is not created by the absence of traditional school
meals and summer activity programs.
As we wrote in March when encouraging expanded flexibility around the low-income
area eligibility requirement for the Summer Food Service Program and the National School
Lunch Program Seamless Summer Option, roughly 80,000 children in Maine rely on free and
reduced-priced lunch programs during the school year. Allowing all meal sites to operate
without barriers is critical to ensuring that no child goes hungry as a result of the pandemic. The
current waiver importantly allows meal sites to serve free meals to children in all areas, rather
than only those in areas where at least half of students receive free or reduced-price meals.
Without an extension, however, the Maine Department of Education estimates that more than 60
percent of children currently receiving meals will lose access to this critical nutrition.
With summer quickly approaching, schools and organizations that operate summer meal
sites--such as local YMCAs--are looking for answers and guidance about how to proceed, and
the ability for many to operate summer meal service depends on this waiver being extended. We
urge you to review promptly Maine's request. For your convenience, we have attached a copy of
the waiver request submitted by the Maine Department of Education.
Thank you for your consideration of this request. We look forward to working with the
Department to prioritize the nutrition needs of children during this challenging time.