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Federal Government Ends COVID-19 Meal Program in Schools
Description
Beginning in the new school year, families must once again apply for the income-based free and reduced lunch subsidy. That’s because the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced recently that it is returning to pre-COVID-19 rules requiring families to apply for free and reduced lunch, rather than allowing all K-12 students to receive free meals.
On this episode of the Supercast, find out what you need to know about school breakfast and lunch moving forward. And, how to apply for free or reduced meals for the upcoming 2022-23 school year in Jordan School District.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello, and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. During the pandemic, the USDA offered free breakfast and lunch to all students K-12 nationwide. Those pandemic rules are now changing. On this episode of the Supercast, find out what you need to know about school breakfast and lunch moving forward, and how to apply for free or reduced meals for the upcoming 2022-23 school year in Jordan School District. We're here with Katie Bastian, the new director of Nutrition Services. Thanks for taking time.
Katie Bastian:
Yes, thank you. Thanks for having me.
Anthony Godfrey:
I can still say new, right? Even though you've done it since last year.
Katie Bastian:
Yeah. I hope so. Yeah, I feel new. Everything's a new day.
Anthony Godfrey:
I just finished my third year. So I think I have to stop saying that I'm new, but it feels good when you're able to do that.
Katie Bastian:
Yes. A little bit of leeway.
Anthony Godfrey:
The last couple of years, the USDA has provided free meals because of COVID and that has happened nationwide. So this change is not a Jordan District change. This is a change that's happening nationwide where now there is no longer an exemption and students will need to pay for their meals. The good news is that Jordan District has not increased the cost of a meal for 13 years, if I'm not mistaken.
Katie Bastian:
Yeah, our meals this year, as you know, we go back to a free, reduced and paid price structure. The cost is just the same as it was pre-pandemic. So, the prices aren't increasing.
Anthony Godfrey:
And it's been over a decade that we've kept those prices low.
Katie Bastian:
It's pretty incredible. Yeah. But through budgeting and making use of, like you say, we make foods from scratch. So we have more labor than most districts do, but we're able to save money and control our quality by doing things from scratch.
Anthony Godfrey:
So the overall cost is lower, that's what's made it possible for us to avoid increasing cost for over a decade, but it's also helped with supply chain issues that we've been able to cook from scratch. Tell me a little bit about that.
Katie Bastian:
We have a warehouse in our district, which we're really lucky to have, so we have a little bit of control over what we bring in and we're able to purchase in bulk. But yeah, when people are having issues getting bread products, bread products haven't and are not an issue for us because we make a lot of our bread products from scratch. We just have to make sure we have all the, you know, raw ingredients of flour, whole wheat flour and that sort of thing. So we are able to control the quality and the cost of it and put out a healthy and delicious product.
Anthony Godfrey:
So when I think about aspects of the district that are run very efficiently with a high quality output it's Nutrition Services that I think of. We do a lot of things well, and that is one of them. It's just incredible what you have done over the years to provide very nutritious, high quality meals at a very low cost and providing jobs. And doing so for less than it would cost to just bring that food in instead of create it here