SCHOOL CLOSURES AND THE CORONAVIRUS
Licensed by D.C Central Kitchen
The Coronavirus is spreading. Local and state governments officials are on the frontlines battling the pandemic. The federal government is scrambling to help mitigate the potential damage. Any successful effort must be prioritize protecting the most vulnerable among us.
For example, how are we confronting the challenge of providing government-subsidized school meals for low-income children in the face of school closures? These children already suffer from food insecurity. As renown scientist Carl Sagan once said:
“Recent research shows that many children who do not have enough to eat wind up with diminished capacity to understand and learn. Children don’t have to be starving for this to happen. Even mild undernutrition – the kind most common among poor people in America – can do it.”
School districts are closing throughout the country to help “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus cases, which includes mandatory social distancing measures. While children experience mild symptoms from this infectious disease, schools are a notorious breeding grounds for circulating illnesses to the masses. The closures prevent children from passing the coronavirus to those who are more susceptible to becoming gravely ill — older adults and people with compromised immune system.
A recent article from Civil Eats paints a disturbing picture of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inability to cut through bureaucratic red tape fast enough to ensure programs that help feed children in the summer – the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and the Seamless Summer Option (SSO) – are able to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible during this unprecedented time.
For instance, the USDA should have found a way to immediately issue waivers for every state to enact these programs on an emergency basis. However, during a Congressional hearing on March 10th, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue said:
“Our legal counsel tells us that we have to be asked, [so] we’ve sent the message to all the states that they can preemptively assume a positive response . . . once a waiver request comes in.”
USDA lawyers should have been able to find or create a legal loophole to overcome this obstacle. Another hurdle for using SFSP and SSO is the requirement sites be in places where 50 percent or more of the children qualify of for free or reduced lunches. That is an unreasonably high bar to clear. If the USDA lawyers can’t find a work-around, they should ask Congress to immediately pass a provision to give them greater flexibility. A final impediment, which pertains specifically to the coronavirus, is the mandate of the meals being eaten in group settings as opposed a social-distancing solution of ‘grab and go’ or ‘delivery’ dynamic for the meal distribution. The USDA needs be nimble and flexible in finding real-time solutions to foreseeable difficulties.
The coronavirus doesn’t discriminate based on a child’s economic status. The government has the capability of guaranteeing this wave of necessary school closures doesn’t unnecessarily cause children to go hungry. Secretary Purdue and his team of lawyers should think about people like Dolly Parton, who came from an impoverished background before becoming a famous country music star, who once said:
“I went to bed hungry many nights as a child. It was a Dream that dressed me up when I was ragged, and it was a Dream that filled me up when I was hungry. Now it’s my Dream to see that no child in this world ever goes hungry, certainly not here in America, the most bountiful country in the world. We can do better…we must!”
Parton’s vision can be realized in this very troubling time if the USDA simply relaxes the regulations for these programs that help feed low-income children.