The Trump administration reportedly said it had determined this funding ‘no longer effectuates agency priorities and that termination of the award is appropriate’
I usually don’t like tooting my own horn, but I’m speaking as someone with 18 years of experience in the financial aspects of school food service. I was one of those middle-management bean counters working for large districts around the Northeast. It is the job of people like me to not only research possible grants and funding sources and ensure the district is getting the maximum benefit, but also to ensure that those benefits are used to their fullest potential to deliver meals to students. We are used to having to deal with fluctuations in what funding we receive and are expected to be able to plan accordingly. If we of all people are the ones saying there’s a problem, there’s a fucking problem. Like 9.5 on the Richter scale type of problem.
There’s a problem.
This will absolutely wreck school food service in many schools. Even before Trump ever set foot in the White House, school food service was often the red-headed stepchild of many school districts that operated on shoestring budgets and were almost always the first to get cuts whenever the school district needed to tighten its belt. These food aid programs in many districts were the only things keeping these programs anything resembling solvent in the first place. I cannot emphasize enough how reliant that our NSLP programs are on this funding.
At least right now, schools are still required to continue serving lunch under federal law. Of course, I’m sure that this will be rectified once Trump realizes that the NSLP exists and decides to cut that too because the program is using food grown in Canada to feed gay kids or something. What this is going to lead to is that NSLP programs are going to be cut to federally required minimums. And without these grants to pay for it, other school services will have to be cut. Teachers will have to be laid off. Other programs will have to be cut in order to pay for school food service. All of this and students will end up receiving less nutritious meals than they received before anyway. Again, that’s until Trump realizes the program even exists and just shuts it down entirely.
You know how we occasionally see those articles about students carrying huge lunch debts at school? Think that, except worse. And everywhere.
I usually don’t like tooting my own horn, but I’m speaking as someone with 18 years of experience in the financial aspects of school food service. I was one of those middle-management bean counters working for large districts around the Northeast. It is the job of people like me to not only research possible grants and funding sources and ensure the district is getting the maximum benefit, but also to ensure that those benefits are used to their fullest potential to deliver meals to students. We are used to having to deal with fluctuations in what funding we receive and are expected to be able to plan accordingly. If we of all people are the ones saying there’s a problem, there’s a fucking problem. Like 9.5 on the Richter scale type of problem.
There’s a problem.
This will absolutely wreck school food service in many schools. Even before Trump ever set foot in the White House, school food service was often the red-headed stepchild of many school districts that operated on shoestring budgets and were almost always the first to get cuts whenever the school district needed to tighten its belt. These food aid programs in many districts were the only things keeping these programs anything resembling solvent in the first place. I cannot emphasize enough how reliant that our NSLP programs are on this funding.
At least right now, schools are still required to continue serving lunch under federal law. Of course, I’m sure that this will be rectified once Trump realizes that the NSLP exists and decides to cut that too because the program is using food grown in Canada to feed gay kids or something. What this is going to lead to is that NSLP programs are going to be cut to federally required minimums. And without these grants to pay for it, other school services will have to be cut. Teachers will have to be laid off. Other programs will have to be cut in order to pay for school food service. All of this and students will end up receiving less nutritious meals than they received before anyway. Again, that’s until Trump realizes the program even exists and just shuts it down entirely.
You know how we occasionally see those articles about students carrying huge lunch debts at school? Think that, except worse. And everywhere.