The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to provide nearly $1 billion in additional funds over the coming year to help schools and child care programs across the nation feed kids. The extra money will allow them to buy American-grown food for their meal programs.
The latest funding from the USDA, coupled with the bipartisan Keep Kids Fed Act , will increase the reimbursement schools and child care centers get through the summer and the next school year.
At a tour of the Jefferson Recreation Center on the North Side on Friday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the money would help make summer meal programs more flexible.
“And to the extent that we can supplement that with additional cash assistance to families, it provides a cushion against the issue of inflation for those families,” Vilsack said.
Pennsylvania will receive about $32 million from the USDA.
“There’s no excuse for any child in America going hungry,” Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey said at the event. “We’ve got to make greater and greater investments to make sure that no child worries about where their next meal will come from or whether or not they’re going to have their next meal.”
The Jefferson Recreation Center typically feeds about 40 kids a day in the summer. The extra funding hasn’t hit yet, but when it does leaders say it will allow them to feed kids into the school year.
Pamela Knight, the director at Jefferson Recreation Center, said the meal programs make a big difference for the kids. In the summer, they get healthy breakfast, lunch and snacks.
“The meal program is very important,” she said. “There’s kids that are not getting fed properly. They are hungry.”
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, more than 1.35 million Pennsylvanians experienced food insecurity in 2019. The pandemic added difficulties for many families and pushed the number of food insecure Pennsylvanians up to 1.77 million.
Though the number fell to 1.5 million in 2021, Knight said the need for food programs like the one at Jefferson Recreation Center is still there.
“I root for the meal program all the way, all through the whole year,” she said.
Find more information about free and reduced school meals here.
