WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), along with Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and their colleagues sent a letter Monday to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to urge the department to continue providing flexibilities to schools and sponsoring organizations for school meals and child nutrition.
“As the school year begins, the challenges brought on by the COVID emergency persist. We encourage continued use of the child nutrition program waiver authority ably used thus far to assist school food authorities and non-school sponsoring organizations who work collaboratively to provide children meals while schools explore various and blended models of in-person and virtual classroom sessions,” the senators wrote. “During this COVID emergency, we ask USDA to utilize program flexibilities, grants or reimbursements that assist school food authorities with procuring, preparing, and serving meals in a manner consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 school re-opening guidelines and that support non-school sponsors providing meals to children on remote-learning days or when in-classroom learning is unavailable.