Federal funds provide free meals for all students
By:
Jill Meier, Journal editor
BV Journal file photo
In this 2018 BV Journal photo, Gov. Kristi Noem and Secretary of Ag Sonny Perdue serve up lunches to students at BV Intermediate School as Gay Anderson looks on.
Free breakfasts and lunches are now available to every student within the Brandon Valley School District, thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) who pushed to extend the federally-funded summer lunch program through the end of the year.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sony Perdue announced Aug. 31 that by extending the summer meal program would help to ensure – no matter what the situation is on-the-ground – that all students have access to nutritious food as the country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As our nation reopens and people return to work, it remains critical our children continue to receive safe, healthy, and nutritious food. During the COVID-19 pandemic, USDA has provided an unprecedented amount of flexibilities to help schools feed kids through the school meal programs, and today, we are also extending summer meal program flexibilities for as long as we can, legally and financially,” Perdue said. “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 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.”
BVSD nutrition director Gay Anderson was elated by the USDA’s action to extend and fund the nutrition program, which now also includes breakfast.
“It’s interesting to see that it actually happened, that people understand we need to keep our kids fed across the country,” said Anderson, who is the immediate past president of the national School Nutrition Association. “One of the last documents I signed off on as president was a letter to Secretary of Ag Sonny Perdue asking for this,” she said.
Free breakfast and lunch are available to all enrolled students in the district through Dec. 23 or until funding runs out. The funding also makes it possible for the district to reimburse family lunch accounts, backdating those refunds to Sept. 1. With an average cost of $60 per month per student, some families saw a significant increase in their family’s lunch account. Anderson spent Sep. 19 reimbursing those funds for 13 days’ worth of paid student meals, and families in the district took notice.
“My email was flooded Saturday and Sunday afternoon with a lot of wonderful emails of gratitude,” she said.
Lunch accounts were only reimbursed for the main meal. Ala carte items in all locations were not refunded, and students are still allowed to select ala carte items as long as they have money in their account. This also includes milk for students who purchase milk for sack lunch, morning milk breaks or any extra items above the regular meal.
Families with a balance of $15 or less will continue to receive notification, as a communication tool for those continuing to make purchases during this time. To avoid receiving low balance notifications, parents/guardians are asked to keep a balance of $15 or more or turn the email notification off under the settings link in the Skyward Family Access Account.
Anderson stressed that it is extremely important for all eligible families to complete the free and reduced applications for meal status to be up to date when the federal funding runs out.
For questions or concerns, email Anderson at Gay.Anderson@k12.sd.us
The Riedels have three children in school, and Ang said their daily average cost is $10, which translates to about $50 per week or $200 per month. At the beginning of the school year, they deposited $500 into their family account, which she said, would typically last two and a half months.
When all three of my kids eat hot lunch at school, the cost averages around $10 a day, so $50 a week and $200 “It adds up fast,” Riedel said.
Her children usually eat breakfast at home, but Riedel has told her kids “if there is something they like for breakfast at the school for the day, they can eat there if they want to now. So far, they have chosen not to,” she said. “I think that it is wonderful that the USDA has offered this to schools. Food costs are very high right now, especially for healthier foods, so the money we save on school lunches helps pay for our grocery bills at home. With COVID-19, there are many people that are struggling to pay bills and make ends meet. This program will especially help those children whose parents are sometimes not able to afford to buy them school lunches.”
Anderson said the district is experiencing an uptick in their breakfast and lunch numbers.
“We’re up about 600 breakfasts over what we had been doing,” she said, citing 1,100 served on Sept. 22 and 1,200 on Sept. 23.
Lunch numbers have also realized an increase of about 300 per day.
“I get nerdy over numbers,” Anderson said. “But we’re seeing breakfast increases now, which is a good problem to have, serving more kids. But with that, we’re scrambling to get more food and our
staff is working longer hours. The question is if the trend will stay.”
As breakfast and lunch count numbers continue to rise, Anderson said her department is experiencing “some growing pains.” But her staff, she adds, is up to the daily challenge.
“They have been amazing,” she said. “Truthfully, we have made changes in the way we serve our kids since the beginning of the school year. They’re hauling heavy equipment or bringing lunches to classrooms and are not complaining.”
Working short-handed most days, Anderson has brought in additional staff through this unique situation. If fully staffed, the nutrition department numbers 52, the majority of which are part-time.
“We always need help,” she reminds.
Anderson said that every school district who takes part in the National School Lunch program were invited to sign up for the free breakfast and lunch program.
“You do have to go through a process,” she said, noting a number of area districts, including Harrisburg, Yankton and Brookings have all been approved.
“It’s not just those on high free or reduced, which Brandon Valley is not,” she said. The program also extends to private and charter schools.
“We can have some growing pains as we go through this as our numbers go up,” Anderson said.
“We’re exposing students that haven’t had (school) breakfast or lunch in the past and we will do this however long it lasts or we return to normal.”
