The U.S. Department of Agriculture has outlined a plan to extend a free school-lunch program for every K-12 student to the spring of 2022.

The USDA’s National School Lunch Program Seamless Summer Option (SSO) previously was available only during summer months.

Child nutrition program waivers, which aimed to cut through red tape to allow kids to eat free even outside normal meal times, were implemented at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, at a time when millions of families faced financial strain, hunger and hardship.

The waivers allowed schools and community organizations to adapt programs to better meet the needs of children and families.

Despite myriad programs – free and reduced-price school breakfasts, lunches and after-school meals, as well as benefits such as SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) – 12 million children in the United States lived in “food insecure” homes before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the advocacy group No Kid Hungry.

Amid predictions that number could reach 18 million during the pandemic, restrictions on how poor a family had to be to qualify for free school meals have been lifted – opening up the program to all.

“USDA will remain relentless in ensuring our nation’s children get the critical nutrition they need,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “Some kids rely on these programs for as many as three?meals a day, underscoring how essential it is for USDA to empower schools and childcare centers to continue their dedicated efforts to serve healthy meals, safely,” the agency said.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, free or sharply reduced-price lunch was limited largely to children whose families fell below 185 percent of the federal poverty line. Those families were required to fill out the cumbersome paperwork to claim the benefit. Many children fell through the cracks in the system.

“There are definitely a certain amount of students that are falling through the cracks,” said Reggie Ross, president of the School Nutrition Association, which represents school food service employees and food suppliers.

Rolled out at the start of the pandemic, changes to the program sought to alleviate family hardship by guaranteeing every pupil who wanted a nutritious meal could get one at no cost, regardless of whether their family met income eligibility requirements, the traditional means by which free school lunches are distributed.

The waivers allowed all children to eat free and outside of the traditional group settings and mealtimes.

“Students’ success in the classroom goes hand in hand with their ability to access basic needs like healthy and nutritious meals,” Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “This program will ensure more students, regardless of their educational setting, can access free, healthy meals as more schools reopen their doors for in-person learning.”

The fact that everyone needs a healthy lunch each day is a defensible and straightforward reason why the public institutions that children spend all day attending should provide each student with one. Let’s hope that temporary benefit becomes permanent.

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— JGG