With Waivers Set to Expire, Pingree Redoubles Efforts to Protect Reliable Access to School Meals

Statement

With child nutrition waivers set to soon expire, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) is doubling down on her efforts to protect reliable access to school meals as the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact Maine schools, families, and communities. Since the early days of the pandemic, Pingree has fought to extend these waivers to mitigate hunger as food insecurity rates increased across Maine. Most recently, Pingree signed onto a bipartisan bill, the Keeping School Meals Flexible Act, that would extend the expiration date for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) authority to establish, grant, or extend child nutrition waivers through the upcoming school year, ending on June 30, 2023. All 12 waivers currently in place and USDA's waiver authority are set to expire on June 30, 2022.

"Sadly, for many Maine children, school meals are the only reliable food they will get all day -- and these waivers gave schools the flexibility to reach more food insecure kids," said Congresswoman Pingree. "These waivers have worked for two years, helping unburden low-income families and school districts alike, and it's clear their benefits extend beyond the pandemic. We cannot let this essential lifeline fade away for thousands of Maine kids."

Pingree, who in 2018 launched the first-ever Bipartisan Food Recovery Caucus, is a cosponsor of the Universal School Meals Program Act, which would permanently provide free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack to all school children regardless of income, eliminate school meal debt, and strengthen local economies by incentivizing local food procurement.

In 2020, Pingree and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) led the charge to secure and renew waivers for the Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option and to waive the Area Eligibility Requirement during the 2020-2021 school year.

Almost 30 million children in the United States rely on free or reduced-price lunch. If pandemic waivers are allowed to expire, many students from homes with incomes just above 130 percent of the poverty line ($34,450 for a family of four) will not receive free meals at school. USDA estimates that 12 million children in the United States lived in food insecure homes at the height of the pandemic. By offering universal school meals this past year, schools across the nation have played an important role in combatting the spike in child hunger brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Through a combination of federal waivers, many schools for the first time were able to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students regardless of their income.

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