A silent crisis is gripping our nation’s children. In a typical school year, more than 30 million students of all ages rely on school breakfast and lunch for their daily recommended intake of critical nutrients. For many children, a school meal is by far the healthiest meal they will consume on any given day. For some kids, sadly, it is the only meal.
However, during the pandemic school meal participation in cities across the country plummeted. According to the School Nutrition Association’s analysis of preliminary data from USDA, which oversees the School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs, schools served at least 675 million fewer meals in school year 2020-2021 versus school year 2019-2020. Remote learning, COVID-19-related illnesses, food supply shortages, and other challenges greatly contributed to the drop-off.