8 FEBRUARY 2021 |  SCHOOL BUSINESS AFFAIRS asbointl.org

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COVID-19’s Toll on School Nutrition ProgramsCritical needs to keep students nourished for learning.

By Reginald Ross, SNS

Despite school closures, Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, served more than 3.8 million grab-and-go school meals between March and December.

To fuel distance learning, the district’s no-contact, curbside meal pick-up offers children a week’s worth of free school breakfasts and lunches from school sites and mobile bus routes. Through school nutrition profession-als’ expansive efforts to ensure students are nourished,

JCPS has created a reliable safety net for families experi-encing food insecurity, unemployment, and the stress of balancing busy work and remote learning schedules.

Yet those 3.8 million meals are a mere fraction of the meals JCPS would typically serve, which means drastic reductions in federal meal reimbursements and revenue that the program relies on to operate self-sufficiently without tapping school district education funds. After

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Reggie Ross, president of SNA and school nutrition consultant for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, distributes grab-and-go school meals at a site in North Carolina.

This article originally appeared in the February 2021 School Business Affairs magazine and is reprinted with permission of the Association of School Business Officials International

(ASBO). The text herein does not necessarily represent the views or policies of ASBO International, and use of this imprint does not imply any endorsement or recognition by

ASBO International and its officers or affiliates.

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serving all of those families in times of need, JCPS’ meal program anticipates a net loss of $18 million by the end of May, painting a grim picture of how even successful programs will function in the future.

Mounting Financial Losses for School Meal ProgramsEven before the pandemic, school nutrition pro-grams operated on extremely tight budgets, funded by cafeteria sales and federal reimbursements for meals served, which equal little more than $3.50 for each lunch served to a child eligible for free meals. For the price many people pay to enjoy a morning latte, schools must cover all the food, labor, and expenses of assembling a complete meal that includes milk, fruit, vegetable, lean protein, and grain. To break even, school meal programs often relied on revenue from a la carte sales in cafeterias and catering programs.

COVID-19 closures were a tipping point, sending many programs into a financial tailspin. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that in March and April 2020, America’s schools served almost 400 million fewer meals than at the same time in 2019. A la carte and catering sales opportunities vanished just as the pandemic increased food and labor costs due to supply chain disruptions, high demand for meal packag-ing, and new personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning costs.

In a recent School Nutrition Association (SNA) survey, more than half of school nutrition directors surveyed reported a financial loss for their programs in School Year (SY) 2019/20 and a harrowing 62% anticipate a loss for SY 2020/21, with an additional 28% of respondents unsure of what to expect. It is no surprise that financial loss was the top concern cited by 93% of respondents in SNA’s survey. The results have set off alarm bells on the breadth of these crippling finan-cial losses.

Barriers to Student Meal ParticipationIn October 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture extended regulatory waivers allowing schools to serve all students free meals without an application throughout SY 2020/21. Offering free meals has helped some pro-grams boost meal participation. However, despite robust efforts to make meals readily available throughout their communities, many school nutrition programs continue to struggle with lagging meal counts, particularly those serving large numbers of virtual learners.

Simply put, it is difficult to reach students with healthy school meals when they aren’t visiting the cafete-ria every day. All too often, those families most in need

lack reliable transportation to meal pick-up sites or their work and distance learning schedules conflict with meal distribution times. Picking up school meals becomes an afterthought for parents and caretakers exhausted from balancing homeschooling and work responsibilities or stressed by the pandemic and economic uncertainty.

For the price many people pay to enjoy a morning latte, schools must cover all the food, labor, and expenses of assembling a complete meal.

In my home state of North Carolina, many districts are serving only 40–50% of the meals they would if students were in school full time. Sudden school closures and quarantines due to COVID-19 outbreaks have made it even harder for school nutrition teams to ensure needy students have consistent access to school meals.

Staffing ShortfallWhen schools first shut down in March and meal pro-grams launched emergency feeding operations, many dedicated school nutrition employees in high-risk cate-gories had no choice but to retire early. Those remaining have tirelessly worked through the pandemic, adapting the programs to meet changing needs in the commu-nity. They are overwhelmed and exhausted, and with COVID-19 cases on the rise, programs are facing staff shortages due to illness or exposure. Keeping school kitchens fully staffed was difficult pre-pandemic, but it is nearly impossible now.

Worse yet, cash-strapped school districts with declin-ing meal participation and revenue have considered furloughing school nutrition staff. In an interview with WSOC-ABC in November, Iredell-Statesville Schools (N.C.) Superintendent Jeff James discussed the district’s anticipated $1.2 million loss and the scramble to reas-sign 16 school nutrition employees to prevent furloughs. He called the situation “a punch to the gut . . . These are our unsung heroes. These guys were at the forefront of COVID-19, serving meals, providing warm food on a continuous basis . . . without that, we would have had a lot of kids going hungry.”

Furloughs and layoffs of school nutrition staff are not only a concern for these frontline heroes; they will

10 FEBRUARY 2021 |  SCHOOL BUSINESS AFFAIRS asbointl.org

handicap efforts to adequately staff school kitchens and serve students when schools fully reopen.

Supporting the School Nutrition TeamToday, as more students confront food insecurity and meal program losses threaten to impact education bud-gets, district leaders must take an active role in support-ing the success of their school meal programs. School administrations should help address any barriers to accessing school meals and encourage families to take advantage of the safe, healthy school meals offered.

School nutrition directors need the full support of the district communications team to ensure parents under-stand that school meals benefit all students, not just at-risk children. Information about meal distribution should be made easy to find on district homepages and social channels. By helping to market the school meal program, school officials can promote healthy, well-nourished students while boosting the program’s (and the district’s) bottom line.

Most importantly, the school nutrition team must be at the table during discussions about closing or reopen-ing schools or modifying schedules so they can ensure

students have consistent access to meals during these transitions. In too many school districts, the nutrition team has been relegated to its own silo, and school meals are considered a peripheral concern. Districts can no longer afford to leave school meals as an afterthought in decision making.

All too often, those families most in need lack reliable transportation to meal pick-up sites or their work and distance learning schedules conflict with meal distribution times.

School nutrition programs that have successfully weathered the pandemic are those in which strong cross-department partnerships have supported school

Meals are distributed to students in Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville, Kentucky.

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meal service. Many meal programs have partnered with transportation staff to distribute meals to distance learn-ers through bus routes. They receive support from the school nursing staff to ensure employees are safe and healthy. Principals, teachers, and custodial staff support in-school meal services, in many cases ensuring meals can be served in the classroom to minimize student movement throughout the building. Fostering a culture in which all departments appreciate and promote the value of school meals for students will support the sus-tainability of school nutrition programs in the long term.

School nutrition directors need the full support of the district communications team to ensure parents understand that school meals benefit all students, not just at-risk children.

The Unprecedented Need for School MealsNow more than ever, children rely on school meals as a hunger safety net. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, more than 4 in 10 children live in households that struggle to meet expenses, putting chil-dren at risk of going without the nutrition they need to focus on their studies. Food insecurity is linked to nega-tive health, development and educational outcomes, such as slower progress in math and reading and a higher likelihood of repeating a grade.

The benefits of school meals extend beyond combat-ing food insecurity. Studies show school meals play a key role in supporting obesity prevention and overall student health, thanks to federal nutrition standards that limit calories, unhealthy fats, and sodium in school meals.

Research shows school lunches are healthier than typi-cal packed lunches and that children receiving school

lunches consume fewer empty calories and more milk, fruit, vegetables, and fiber than their peers.

Looking AheadPrior to the pandemic, school nutrition professionals had transformed school cafeterias. They expanded farm-to-school programs to introduce students to foods grown in their states and to increase locally grown choices on school menus. Whole grain Asian noodle bowls, made-to-order gourmet salads, and clean label options were common school lunch fare. Meanwhile, meal programs expanded services to ensure needy students have con-sistent access to healthy meals through breakfast in the classroom, afterschool snack and suppers, and summer meal programs.

With school meal programs facing tremendous financial losses, can they sustain and build on all of the progress made before the pandemic? Will programs be equipped to continue to meet the nutritional needs of students post-pandemic, without relying on gen-eral funds?

It is imperative that school administrations and school nutrition professionals work together to protect the long-term promise of the school nutrition safety net and to advocate for school meal program support. Our stu-dents’ health, well-being, and success in the classroom depend on it.

ReferencesGovernment Accountability Office. “COVID-19 Federal Efforts Could be Strengthened by Timely and Concerted Actions.” GAO-20-701. Published September 21, 2020. www.gao.gov/reports/GAO-20-701/#appendix13

School Nutrition Association. Impact of COVID-10 on School Nutrition Programs Back to School 2020. https://schoolnutrition.org/uploadedFiles/6_News_Publications_and_Research/8_SNA_Research/Impact-of-Covid-19-on-School-Nutrition-Programs-Back-to-School-2020.pdf

Reginald Ross is president of the School Nutrition Associa-tion and is a school nutrition consultant for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction in Charlotte. Email: reginald.ross@dpi.nc.gov

The School Nutrition Association (SNA) is a national, nonprofit representing 55,000 school nutrition professionals across the country. For more information, visit www.SchoolNutrition.org

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