In an effort to stay safe from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, schools, along with many other institutions have shut down. Distance learning has been embraced as an alternative to face-to-face education to keep students on schedule with their school curriculum; this prevents students from attending physical classes. Even though this implementation has helped control the coronavirus pandemic, it poses a big problem to the many students that rely on schools to provide their meals which are an essential staple for many families. Food insecurity is witnessed in schools in events of emergency or public health crises. This is a call of action for the Mayor’s Office of Food Security in collaboration with the Office of Emergency Management, and the Department of education to come up with a plan to provide students with after-school, breakfast, and lunch meals in cases where the learning institutions are shut down or when remote learning is being used. Free school meals contribute up to a third of many students’ caloric intake in one day; further research reveals that millions of students that don't have the means to purchase the food receive free food in schools offered by the Department of Education (Washington University, 2020). Due to increasing burdens caused by the pandemic, the federal government has signaled that states need to rely less on the federal government and take care of themselves, the federal administration further signaled the local officials to handle the issue of school meals within their states (Abad-Santos, 2020). Therefore, it is important to modify the bill to ensure students receive food in case schools shut down; this will solve the problem of food insecurity that many unprivileged learners face. According to Schirm (2017), the advantages of providing low-cost meals to students include improved diet, address obesity among students, and encouraging a better learning environment. The current program by the Department of Education caters to public school students’ breakfast, lunch, and after-school meals during the school year (Johnson, 2020). America is among the 44 countries in the world that have set up a sustainable feeding program controlled by the government (UN World Food Program, 2020). According to Gathro (2012), National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the biggest school meal initiative in America that has been in operation for over half a decade. In 20 17, NYC agreed to offer free lunch to all public school learners, an amendment from the old program where only students registered as free lunch recipients received the free meals (Zimmerman, 2017). Even though this bill is effective, modifying the legislation to include meals in emergency cases when schools are shut down will ensure food security in troubled times. Since the beginning of the coronavirus disease pandemic, many steps have been taken by the Department of Education, the Mayor’s Office of Food Security, the Office of Emergency Management, and the federal government to ensure students that rely on school meals are catered to. The school-base-grab-and-go emergency program developed in NYC by the Mayor's Office is a big step towards ensuring food security in public health emergencies (Nargi, 2020); the program is the first major step in the implementation of the proposed modification in the policy. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed reforms to make the administration of school meals more flexible and the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer Program (P-EBT) are concrete steps that are being taken to address the policy issues (Abad-Santos, 2020). According to Nargi (2020), the step by the Office of School Food and Nutrition Services to provide emergency meals for school students is a key step in the modification of the legislation.
References
Abad-Santos, A. (2020). How US schools are (and aren’t) providing meals to children in the Covid-19 crisis. Vox. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2020/3/28/21197965/coronavirus-school-shutdown-free-meals.
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Gothro, A. (2012). National school lunch program background, trends, and issues. Bibliogov.
Johnson, C. (2020). Legistar.council.nyc.gov. Retrieved from https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4624881&GUID=A352B4B6-08EC-40DD-9FFF-227CB996FE5B&Options=ID%7CText%7C&Search=Int+2057-2020.
Nargi, L. (2020). How NYC’s New ‘Food Czar’ Is Keeping People Fed During the Coronavirus Crisis . Eater NY. Retrieved from https://ny.eater.com/2020/4/13/21219547/nyc-food-supply-coronavirus-czar-kathryn-garcia.
Schirm, A. (2017). Using American Community Survey data to expand access to the school meals programs.
UN World Food Program. (2020). School feeding | World Food Programme. Wfp.org. Retrieved from https://www.wfp.org/school-meals.
Washington University. (2020). Food insecurity and schools during the pandemic. Newswise.com. Retrieved from https://www.newswise.com/coronavirus/food-insecurity-and-schools-during-the-pandemic/?article_id=737280.
Zimmerman, A. (2017). New York City unveils universal free lunch in time for the first day of school. Chalkbeat New York. Retrieved from https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2017/9/6/21100870/new-york-city-unveils-universal-free-lunch-in-time-for-the-first-day-of-school.
