Reply to Are there existing groups advocating for change in school-provided food for FCPS?

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Reply to "Are there existing groups advocating for change in school-provided food for FCPS?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's expensive Op.

Having said that, I do question how the SB appropriates funding. Maybe a few less flying in $80k guest speakers and more money allocated to, at the least, decent food.

We are still waiting for a salad bar at my kid's ES. [/quote]

FCPS has 187,000 students. $80K is a single half day's worth of food. You want to have something to allocate to decent food you're going to have to cut something much greater in the budget...like reducing the free student lunches from 100% of the population to 40%.

The food and nutrition fund is $84 million a year. Check it yourself. That translates to a cost of $2 million per a week for 40 weeks to feed all of the kids.

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY-2022-Program-Budget.pdf[/quote]

School food is expensive, but the cost of free meals for all kids since the pandemic was fully supported by the Federal government through waivers allowed by laws passed  by Congress to address Covid issues.

Those waivers also allowed some lowering of nutrition standards, from the already lower standards pushed forward in the previous administration.  The new administration is working to bring the standards back up to where they need to be, but it will take time.  The Covid flexibilities also provided extra funds per meal, which was handy as schools met supply chain issues.

Congress decided not to continue the flexibilities that allowed free meals for all in the last approps  bill, including disallowing  the menu flexibilities. That also means less money per meal in the next school year. So expect meals to go back to early 2020 nutrition standards next school year.  Unfortunately, unlike early 2020,food is more expensive, supply chain issues are still significant, and labor challenges are real.

I’m not saying don’t advocate for change, but this is the reality you are up against.[/quote]

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