Meet Philip Brown, superintendent at the Jackson County School System in Georgia, who was recently named one of the NSPRA's 25 "Superintendents to Watch."
"No child in this country should go hungry," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in an interview with The Associated Press. "They certainly shouldn't go hungry because they lose access to nutritious school meals during the summer months."
A range of financial, logistical and regulatory challenges have the potential to disrupt school meal service as pandemic relief funding expires and stricter standards arrive, advocates say.
Just a couple dozen students attend the new Career and Technical Education Center, deterred in part by the travel across the city. But another 200 students take classes online, and leaders are confident the program's popularity will grow.
Depending on how legislators respond to their needs, these school systems will either remain vibrant economic and social incubators that prepare children to rebuild the state's rural culture or those same children could end up with lives of diminished opportunity.
In a tense meeting, the Springfield, Missouri school board voted to add "gender identity and sexual orientation" to a pair of anti-discrimination policies governing school lunches.
A nationwide shortage of half-pint milk cartons is hitting schools in several states, leaving them brainstorming other ways to serve the drink to their students.
At schools where 25% of families participate in income-based public benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, the federal government now will cover the cost of free meals for all enrolled students. Previously, the qualifying threshold was 40%.
At schools where 25% of families participate in income-based public benefits, the federal government now will cover the cost of free meals for all enrolled students.
A new watchdog report is revealing more than two dozen states have reported delivery challenges with getting food for school meals purchased by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
