Educators have long known that when students do not get enough to eat, it can adversely affect their academic performance. Many schools also know that for some students, the food served at schools is their primary source for a meal. During the pandemic, all students received free meals reducing the risk that a student would go hungry. When the pandemic risks ended, so did the free meals. Schools are once again grappling with getting students fed and seeing student meal debt rise. On top of this, new nutrition standards are being proposed by the USDA that may have an impact on the school lunch fund meeting its bottom line.
Serving children healthy, nutritious, and tasty food can be a challenge. The proposed nutrition standards reflect the most recent dietary guidelines which in short, call for schools to limit sodium and reduce added sugars in foods as well as adding more whole grain products to the menu. Post pandemic food prices have increased, especially milk and eggs, key ingredients in many food items used for school meals. The USDA understands that there are high food costs and supply chain issues and has developed a proposed timeline for implementation that spans several years, giving schools the opportunity to successfully make the changes in the meals [see proposed implementation timeline from the USDA]. The USDA has encouraged feedback on the proposed changes and indicated that the comments will be used to develop the final standards.
The nutrition standards currently in place already required meals to contain more whole grains and reduced sodium and sugar, and schools across the country have been having a tough time adhering to the guidelines, especially as the lunch fund, which is supposed to operate independently of the school district’s general fund, has seen unpaid student meal debt charges increase since the end of the federal pandemic waiver. The Child Nutrition department of the New York State Education Department had issued legislation in June 2018 prohibiting all public, non-public and charter school food authorities (SFA) against meal shaming requiring school district to not shame or treat a student with unpaid meal charges differently that a student who does not have unpaid meal charges. This law, coupled with the increased food prices and supply chain issues, will make it harder for schools in New York to meet the proposed nutrition standards. Tackling the student unpaid meal charges will be critical to address nutrition standards.
One tactic for dealing with mounting meal charges is to have the general fund forgive the existing debt, but this is not always possible to do. Prices of other school district costs have also increased, for example computer equipment, general supplies, and cybersecurity insurance. Schools can consider getting donations from local nonprofit organizations, community organizations, PTA, etc., to pay for the debt. Managing this will likely require a lot of internal controls (documentation and oversight), and time. Schools across the nation, as well as local governments, are advocating for legislation that will provide universal free school meals, getting rid of the debt problem altogether. So far, three states have made this policy permanent: California, Colorado and Maine. Three other states extended the universal free school meal for the 2022-2023 school year (Massachusetts, Nevada, and Vermont). In New York, the Community Food Advocates (CFA) is among those supporting statewide legislation to provide universal school meals along with the NY Health Foundation (NYHF). Both organizations are involved in supporting healthy food options, getting access to healthy food, and combating food insecurity.
For more information, click for their websites below:
Community Food Advocates (CFA)
NY Health Foundation (NYHF)
Shari Diamond, CIA
Partner
Shari has been with Cerini & Associates, LLP since 2008 where she works primarily with the firm’s school district clients providing internal audit and claims audit services. She has over twenty years’ experience performing internal audits, risk assessments, and compliance reviews, as well as recommending processes to strengthen the internal controls environment while increasing efficiencies. Her prior experience at PWC and Northrop Grumman included performing Information Technology audits.