Here’s why your student’s meals in Rock Hill and Fort Mill schools will be free.
Whoever said there’s no such thing as a free lunch, never went to school during a coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, the Fort Mill School District learned a waiver had been approved to allow free meals to all district students.
“All meals will be free to students,” district student nutrition director Tammie Welch told a surprised school board on Tuesday night. “All students. So any student who wants to eat, it will be free.”
Welch got the news only a couple of hours before the board meeting began. The partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture is similar to what districts use for summer feeding programs that provide free meals to students. Fort Mill isn’t alone.
On Sept. 6 the Rock Hill School District posted on its Facebook page that meals in that district will be free through the end of the calendar year. The free meals include both breakfast and lunch.
The end of the calendar year is the estimate for when free meals might end in Fort Mill, too.
“It’s until Dec. 31,” Welch said, “or until funds run out. So it might go longer, it might go shorter.”
Students will still use lunch codes for accounting, allergen and other purposes. The district recommends people who utilize free and reduced lunch programs continue to stay signed up, for whenever the free meals end.
“Hopefully they’ll give us a time frame for when it’s going to change,” Welch said.
On Aug. 31 the USDA announced it would extend summer meal operations to allow free meals in school districts nationwide through the end of the year. Districts still have to go through a waiver process.
“As our nation reopens and people return to work, it remains critical our children continue to receive safe, healthy, and nutritious food,” U.S. Sec. of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said in that Aug. 31 announcement. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, USDA has provided an unprecedented amount of flexibilities to help schools feed kids through the school meal programs, and today, we are also extending summer meal program flexibilities for as long as we can, legally and financially.”
The USDA move is unlike any before it.
“It’s an historic program,” said Fort Mill superintendent Chuck Epps.
School board member Celia McCarter, like others Tuesday night, offered surprise at how expansive the program is.
“It’s not just for the virtual students or the hybrid students,” she said. “It’s everybody. I can’t believe that.”
A food program for virtual students in the Fort Mill district began Wednesday. Parents were able to get food at Nation Ford High School. Welch said about 200 families were involved, or about 2,000 meals served.
“They had to sign up for that, and we have about 200 students on that list,” she said.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought widespread changes to food service. Many students in area districts don’t come to school and instead use virtual options, while many students who do come to classrooms do it every other day or so on hybrid schedules. For elementary students in Fort Mill schools, meals are delivered to classrooms to avoid cafeteria crowds.
Welch said nationwide, there aren’t as many meals being served in schools.
“It took me five days to do the number of meals I (ordinarily) do in one day,” she said.
The free meal programs are a way to make sure any students who do need meals, get them.
“We appreciate the incredible efforts by our school food service professionals year in and year out, but this year we have an unprecedented situation,” Perdue said in the program announcement. “This extension of summer program authority will employ summer program sponsors to ensure meals are reaching all children – whether they are learning in the classroom or virtually – so they are fed and ready to learn, even in new and ever-changing learning environments.”
