We're losing kids on free lunch

 Hey, remember how we've noted that as we lose SNAP enrollment, we're going to lose free lunch enrollment?

That has now started to be seen happening, per EdWeek

In addition to Miami-Dade, some schools in nearby Palm Beach County, Fla., Houston, the San Antonio area, and Hardin County, Ky., have also announced the end of universal free meals in recent months because they no longer qualify for CEP.

Hysom anticipates more districts will follow suit.

where we are at on federal grants

 This came out from DESE's grants office this morning. While it is not new information, I thought it was a useful summary: 

On November 12, a “continuing resolution” was passed to reopen the federal government through January 30, 2026. However, most school year 2026-2027 federal education funding levels have not been resolved and are still subject to negotiation (ESSA, IDEA, Perkins, etc.). If Congress cannot come to an agreement on FY27 funding levels by January 30^th, they must either pass another “continuing resolution” or shut down the government yet again. It should be noted that the national school meals program was the one major area of federal education funding that did receive a new full-year appropriation, through September 30, 2026.
 
Early the following week, the U.S. Education Department (USED) informed state education leaders of its intent to transition the management of several major programs to other federal agencies. The announcement stated that the majority of programs currently managed by the federal Office of Elementary and Secondary Education will transition to the U.S. Department of Labor via an inter-agency agreement. These programs will include Title I-A, Title II-A, Title III-A, Title IV-A and B, and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Act, among others. 

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) programs will, for the moment, remain at USED, as will the Office for Civil Rights. USED officials noted that signed agreements with the Department of Labor and other agencies are only a first step and could not provide immediate details on the timing or specifics of the interagency transitions. These details will vary by program. The federal press release includes links to several federal fact sheets, including one on elementary and secondary education. 

USDA cancels a billion dollars in food funding for schools and food banks supporting local farms

 Need a reason to call Congress today?

Yesterday, the United States Department of Agriculture cut two programs for the current fiscal year: one, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, that nationally is about $500M, provides support for local food banks; and the Local Food for Schools program, that nationally funds $660M for schools. Both were the result of a December expansion of prior programs to provide for locally-grown, minimally-processed food from local farmers to go to local food banks and schools.

Per Politico, USDA:

...confirmed that funding, previously announced last October, “is no longer available and those agreements will be terminated following 60-day notification.”

The spokesperson added: “These programs, created under the former Administration via Executive authority, no longer effectuate the goals of the agency. LFPA and LFPA Plus agreements that were in place prior to LFPA 25, which still have substantial financial resources remaining, will continue to be in effect for the remainder of the period of performance.”

I personally fail to see which aspects of USDA's goals aren't "effectuate[d]" through funding local farmers to provide healthy food for the hungry. 

In Massachusetts, this is $12.2M. Asked yesterday about it, Governor Healey's response was a harbinger of where we're at here: 

When she was asked whether the state had a plan to backfill that loss of federal support, Healey, flanked by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, state Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, and House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, didn’t mince words.

“Are you kidding?” she shot back.

“I think people have got to understand the scope of what we’re talking about here ... the scope is so vast when you’re talking about federal funding,” she said. “We’re talking about tens of billions of dollars,” she continued.

Healey’s $62 billion budget proposal for the new fiscal year that starts July 1 is premised on more than $16 billion in assistance from Washington.

That money funds a host of programs, including MassHealth, as Medicaid is known in the Bay State, as well as public education.

“And that’s not even accounting for the funding that doesn’t even come to us,” Healey continued. “There’s money that comes directly to not-for-profits, and to organizations and to school districts directly that is also subject to just being cut completely. So, the numbers are so huge that there is no way the state can begin to fill the void and pick up the tab.”

It is important to note that even Massachusetts, even with $8B in the rainy day fund, does not have the capacity to make up for the full weight of federal funding. We could try; we could do some things; we cannot do it all.

Something to complain to your reps and senators about. in particular because this is the first time we've seen USDA funding for school nutrition cut or frozen. That does not bode well. 

“I’m complying with state and federal law"

In case you missed Maine Governor Janet Mills stand up to President Trump earlier this week, you can watch the video here.

While it's (naturally) her refusal to back down that's making the news, what she said matters a lot: her response was "I'm complying with state and federal law."

Executive orders and "Dear Colleague" letters are not federal law.

Please repeat that as often as necessary.

Given the thin-skinned nature of the executive, it isn't surprising that the next investigation by what we used to call the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, but will need to come up with another name for was one into Maine. 

What is new on this one, and this worries me because this is where free lunch is funded from, is that the United States Department of Agriculture also launched an investigation into the University of Maine. This isn't school nutrition, but it is concerning to see this also coming from that department. 

Don't, however, think you can go along and somehow get along with this administration. They're coming for everyone, sooner or later.

Eliminating school lunch fees increased participation

 ...by a lot.

Incredibly important report released last week by the Food Research and Action Center looking at participation in school breakfast and lunch programs during 2021-22, when universal coverage of lunch was still national.

As K-12 Dive (rightly) highlights, participation in school lunch programs went up 51% during that school year! 

Just feed kids, folks. It works.

Consolidated COVID-19 resources for Massachusetts schools

DESE now has a page for it.
It was also reassuring to hear questions regarding the state's possible assistance for schools come up at today's Ways and Means hearing:

During a hearing on the education components of Gov. Charlie Baker's $44.6 billion fiscal 2021 budget, House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Thomas Stanley asked state education officials if they anticipate a need for any additional funding associated with the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, or if the costs for schools to respond would "fall on the backs of the districts."
"I'm just thinking there may be a need to hire more people cleaning, and down the road, depending on how bad this gets, how many school districts are prepared to have the kids learn from home for a period of time, things like that," the Waltham Democrat said during the hearing at the Malden senior center.

For those asking about meals, I'd suggest reviewing this memo from USDA School Nutrition, which seems to suggest that feeding kids outside of school is allowed, but doing so and not requiring them to eat on-site requires a Presidential declaration of emergency?

This piece from the Atlantic looking at what prolonged closure of schools would have for consequences is a good start, and I particularly appreciate that they ran with the example of a district that doesn't have widespread internet access. We can't just move school online!

This Twitter thread from Professor Nicholas Christakis at Yale which looks at the impact of school closure on the spread of the 1918 flu is both fascinating and useful. It starts here:

Let's talk about school closures re COVID-19. It's a tough topic, scientifically and pragmatically. It's hard to estimate the benefits precisely. And closing schools can have costs, such as health care workers having to stay home, kids missing subsidized lunches, etc. 1/

— Nicholas A. Christakis (@NAChristakis) March 4, 2020

Novick Reports: Healthy Food Fuels Hungry Minds conference in sum

As shared with MASC earlier today:

Earlier this week, I attended the Healthy Food Fuels Hungry Minds child nutrition conference, which MASC co-sponsored. The day’s schedule is here; you can also find a link to the presentations there. My liveblog of the day is here.

The morning keynote was Daniel Giusti, who you may know as a chef; he’s now working on Brigaid, which will have chefs working with and in schools in New London, CT. One of his points was the real gap that exists between the culinary world (most particularly including its training) and institutional food of all kinds. He’s clearly found the realities of school cafeterias eye-opening. It will be interesting to see where Brigaid goes.

The following presentations were on the Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act and updated nutrition standards.

A few statistics I found interesting:

• Those in school meal programs consume about half of their calories in school.
• 97% of schools are meeting the new 2010 nutrition standards.
• Kids are now eating 13% more of their entrees, 16% or more vegetables and 23% more fruit at lunch.

While the HHFKA expired in September, Congress has yet to pass an update. There are concerns with the bills that have come out; see the slides for more details, though we’ve also discussed them on the [MASC] list-serv in the past. In particular, the proposed House change on Community Eligibility would remove 7000 schools that are currently in the program (and untold others that haven’t yet made it in).

The following panel was on the link between school food and school performance, though it also functioned as a reflection on what is and is not working around feeding kids. Beyond the obvious cost and delivery concerns, there was a repeated call for students to have food that is thoughtfully prepared and presented; to have enough time to sit and eat; and to have time to socialize over food. It wasn’t clear that the presenters knew where to go with that (‘though I think we do!).

I went to a session following on Springfield’s new Commissionary, which I didn’t take extensive notes on, but I’d encourage those interested to ask Springfield about. Boston City Council President Michelle Wu spoke of the importance of school food, and then I had to leave. My understanding, though, is that Boston Superintendent Tommy Chang echoed the importance of students having enough time to eat.

As always, questions welcome!

Healthy Food Fuels Hungry Minds conference

Not sure yet how I'll divide this one up...coming up is an update on the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act and other legislation, changes in nutrition standards, and food and the link with school performance 

New national school lunch bill

The national school lunch bill is out for markup today (it just started at 10; you can watch it here). As was correctly pointed out in this New York Times column on Sunday, the main news is that there is no additional money included in the bill. This still leaves school lunches (and breakfasts) woefully underfunded, particularly for a program on which so much depends.
The bill does:

• extend the length of time until school districts have to hit the new lower sodium levels. That requirement also must be reviewed by an outside entity by July 2019.
• lowers the percentage of grain products that must be 51% whole grain from 100% to 80% 
• provide greater flexibility (and possibly more funding?) for summer feeding programs
• establishes loan and grant programs for school kitchen modernization
• leave the fruit and vegetable requirements intact. 

Finance and Operations: school nutrition

Nutrition program funded through USDA "self-funded program" through federal and state funding plus user fees
school lunch price raised in accordance with federal law
"few in the state" that can say budget covers full operating costs
biggest line item increase is in equipment: replacement this year
Foley: ceiling price is ? $2.65, so increases over time for us, but it is a moving target
"enterprise account completely covering its costs" very rare: Worcester does it!
Novick: no laborer, done for budgetary reasons, but works ok
Farm Bill? Monitoring at this time

We're FAMOUS!

Did you see that the Worcester Kindergarten Initiative (with our great partners, REC YouthGrow) made the USDA blog today?

Our new mobile food truck!

This morning we unveiled the new Worcester Public Schools mobile food truck at Vernon Hill Park! It went to work on Wednesday of this week. It was donated to us by the Worcester County Food Bank, and funded by the Our Family Foundation of Stop and Shop, 'though the food comes through the USDA.

A lot of our kids in the city are dependent on free breakfast and lunch for healthy eating, and summer can be a hungry time for them. This truck gets breakfast and early dinner out to where kids are.

Any child under 18 can come by the truck when it is there, Monday through Saturday, and be fed, no questions asked.

The food truck is at Vernon Hill Park for breakfast from 10-10:30 am and for dinner from  3-3:30 for dinner. The food truck is at Bennett Field (in Webster Square) from 11-11:30 am for breakfast and 4-4:30 pm for dinner.
The meals (and the truck is equipped to handle 1000 meals at a time) are being prepared in the North High kitchens, and the refrigeration means that we're able to get much more local produce out to our kids!
Currently, only one in seven children eligible for summer food from USDA gets it. That's a lot of hungry kids, so please spread the word!

And if you missed this article from rural Tennessee, demonstrating the importance of these programs, I would urge you to read it. 

Worcester School Committee meets on Thursday

The Worcester School Committee will have its second February meeting on Thursday at 7 pm at City Hall. You can find the agenda here. 
(And it's a lengthy one; that's what happens when there's an extra week in between meetings!)
Governance and Employee Issues is reporting out from their meeting on Valentine's Day.
Administration is reporting back on:

• additional training for IA's (this is the backup, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me; asking)
• snacks for athletes: USDA After School Snack program is being implemented
• CORI's in other languages (in English, Spanish, Porteguese, Vietnamese, Albanian and downloadable in Arabic)
• principals hired over the past three years
• a change in an account name (to "Supplemental Programs Salaries")
• scheduled student (nursing) screenings
• a Constitution Day report
• evening meeting locations 
• notifying teachers of the state ethics commission finding on class gifts
• distribution of donated instruments
• music lessons citywide (there are more than I'd thought!)
• changes in the school nutrition regs (not a new change; just discussing a previous one)
• the articulation agreements
• Friday is READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY, which means there's a decent chance you'll see a Cat in the Hat hat at the meeting.

In other news: we still have $45,000 to allocate from the $500,000 the City Council sent to WPS.

The cross-country course at Newton Hill needs preservation, as the Fire Alarm Building changes hands.

There's a request for a waiver for the 180 day requirement.

Congratulations going to kids who received awards on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and on Valentine's Day. 

A request is coming in that we look at the summer learning collaborative.

There's a suggestion that we celebrate September 2 as "World War II Commemoration Day."

A request that we look at establishing mock trial and debate teams at the secondary level, as well as after school activities at the middle schools.

Mayor Petty is suggesting that we name the gym at Columbus Park School after Sergeant William Benjamin Soutra, Jr.

We need to look at the findings of the Civil Rights Secretary on sports participation and the Title IX finding, also on sports.

We're congratulating on Thomas Greene Award winners!

Mr. O'Connell has filed items regarding both changes to IDEA (on parental consent) and proposed Local Educational Agency Governance, Flexibility, and Efficiency Act.

We're congratulating South High's bowling team.

There's a request coming in for projected changes in principals for next year.

And we're asking how that increased supply budget was spent.

7 pm, City Hall!

Sunday wrap-up

A few things I didn't get to post this week:

• Boston's pulling of pink slime made the New York Times. I've now been sent notice of so many supermarkets dropping it that I've lost track.
• GoLocalWorcester did a "we found some people who have an opinion but no information about homeless students in Worcester" post. While I don't usually out reporters calling me and then not doing anything with it, this time, I am going to say: I told you to call and get numbers. You should have called and gotten numbers. And some working knowledge of how this works.
• The editorial board of the T&G did their bimonthly (or so) "charter schools will save us all" editorial, which means it's time once again to point out that they did so without pointing out that their editor's wife works for a charter school. Journalism 101, guys. (And see Jim Gonyea for more on this.)
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution did a massive look at test scores in cities across the country (not Worcester) and pulled out the ones with suspicious gains.
• CPPAC is having a Parent Expo next Saturday at Clark and you should go!

Sorry if we ruined your breakfast...

A bit more (for those who wish to know) regarding today's Telegram and Gazette article on pink slime:

• The box I'm holding and all of those surrounding me in the photo are USDA commodity beef. We are still waiting to hear back from them (they aren't returning calls, shall we say?) on where it came from, so we can contact the supplier and confirm contents.They're staying in the North High freezer (and other freezers) until we get that answer. We aren't serving it unless and until we know.
•  Not all beef we serve is commodity beef. Some additional beef Worcester purchases, fresh ground, from a plant in Connecticut (and, yes, it's all actual muscle meat).
• It isn't just that they're mixing ammonium nitrate into this stuff. They do that to kill pathogens in the mix (from the outside of the cattle). Except it doesn't always work: "...three years ago more than 50,000 pounds of “Pink Slime”/BLBT had to recalled. The Times also highlighted that between 2005 and 2009, the ground beef bought from BPI for school lunches tested positive for salmonella 48 times."
• As things stand currently, starting this fall, schools will have a choice of getting beef that's 15% this stuff or entirely actual ground beef. Clearly, the latter will be more expensive than the former. Worcester is committed to serving the latter, even it if means serving less beef.

• A number of congressional representatives, including Rep. McGovern, have signed a letter to Secretary Tom Vilsack, urging that this stuff be pulled entirely from the school lunch program. 
• I've put an item on the April 5 agenda asking for a similar letter from the Worcester School Committee.

And if you have questions, please send them along!

Let's talk about pink slime

The news that the USDA is planning to purchase seven million pounds of ground connective tissue treated with ammonium hydroxide--dubbed "pink slime" by microbiologists--for school lunches went viral yesterday. This is material that has been rejected by fast food outlets, but not by the federal government for feeding to children.

The particularly alarming part from the local school perspective is there is no requirement that this be labeled as anything other than "hamburger" per The Daily:

In 2005, the USDA limited the amount of ammonia-treated Lean Beef Trimmings in a serving of ground beef to 15 percent, but lax labeling requirements mean that it is virtually impossible as a consumer — and for parents of children at a schools where “pink slime” is a part of lunch — to know whether a given package of ground beef or hamburger patty contains it.

“The USDA-AMS [Agricultural Marketing Service] does allow for the inclusion of BPI Boneless Lean Beef in the ground beef they procure for all their federal food programs and, according to federal labeling requirements, it is not a raw material that is uniquely labeled,” Amy Bell, spokeswoman for the California Department of Education Food Distribution Program, told The Daily in an email. “Accordingly, there is no way to tell from simply looking at a package of finished product if BPI Boneless Lean Beef is in the product mix.”

Last year, the USDA said that 6.5 percent of the beef it purchased for the national school lunch program came from BPI.

As you'd hope, this news sent school nutrition directors (including Worcester's) to the state to ask just what it was that they were planning on sending us labeled "hamburger." The state now has a call into USDA to ask the same.
I've sent a letter to Congressman McGovern, who sits on the Agriculture Committee, asking that this be pulled from the school lunch program. I'd urge you to do likewise (and if you live somewhere other than Worcester, ask your school nutrition director to find out what's going on with the hamburger).

UPDATE for those of you from Worcester: Worcester does not only get hamburger from USDA; we also purchase it separately from a meat producer in Connecticut where it is ground fresh.