The Reach of Breakfast and Lunch

1 The Reach of Breakfast and Lunch : A Look at Pandemic and Pre-Pandemic Participation FEBRUARY 2022 | W W The Reach of Breakfast and Lunch : A Look at Pandemic and Pre-Pandemic Participation FEBRUARY 2022. Acknowledgments About FRAC. The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) Additional support for FRAC's Breakfast and child The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC). gratefully acknowledges major dedicated support nutrition work has been provided by the following: improves the nutrition, health, and well-being of its work to increase participation and improve the ` Annie E. Casey Foundation; of people struggling against poverty-related school Breakfast Program from the following: ` Anonymous; hunger in the United States through advocacy, ` The From Now On Fund of the Tides Foundation; ` The JPB Foundation; partnerships, and by advancing bold and ` General Mills, Inc.

2 ; ` national Recreation and Park Association; and equitable policy solutions. For more information ` Kaiser Foundation Health Plan; ` Nourishing Neighbors, a Program of the about FRAC, or to sign up for FRAC's ` Kellogg Company Fund; and Albertsons Companies Foundation. e-newsletters, go to ` Newman's Own Foundation. This report was written by FRAC's Clarissa Hayes and Crystal FitzSimons. The findings and conclusions presented in this report are those of FRAC alone. Executive Summary Breakfast and Lunch Participation For decades, millions of low-income made it possible for meals to be served To analyze the impact COVID-19 has Pre-Pandemic (2018 2019 school Year) children have benefited from federally safely during the pandemic, including had on access to Breakfast and Lunch , Compared to the 2020 2021 school Year funded breakfasts and lunches provided allowing meals to be taken home, for this report looks at participation across through the school Breakfast Program parents or guardians to pick up meals the 2018 2019, 2019 2020, and 2020.

3 (SBP) and national school Lunch Program for their children, and for multiple days' 2021 school years. (NSLP). These child nutrition programs worth of meals to be distributed at one NEARLY support academic achievement, reduce time. Most impactful, the Summer Food KEY FINDINGS. million food insecurity, and improve health,1. making them as critical for students'. Service Program (SFSP) and Seamless Summer Option (SSO) waivers have allowed schools (and other SFSP. ` Nearly million children received Breakfast and million children children received Breakfast and academic success as textbooks and million children received Lunch on an sponsors) to offer meals at no charge received Lunch on an average day transportation. This role has become average day during the 2020 2021 to all children while also reducing the during the 2020 2021 school year.

4 More important than ever as the COVID-19. school year; a decrease of percent administrative burden on school nutrition When compared to Breakfast and pandemic has introduced unprecedented and percent, respectively, from the food insecurity and economic hardships departments, eliminating school meals Lunch participation rates during 2018 2019 school year. for families across the country, and has debt, reducing stigma, and providing the 2018 2019 school year ( , further exacerbated already existing a level of reimbursement that is more the last full school year before the inequities for Black and Latinx commensurate with the additional costs pandemic), this reflects a decrease Yet, access to meals has decreased when created by the pandemic. of 692,000 children ( percent).

5 Comparing participation rates before the While these waivers have enabled and million children ( MORE THAN percent), respectively. pandemic (2018 2019 school year) to the schools to continue providing meals, billion breakfasts were served through the first two school years during the pandemic (2019 2020 and 2020 2021 school the pandemic has simultaneously exacerbated existing barriers to school ` During the 2020 2021 school year, the first full year of the COVID-19. years) despite the spike in need. meals participation while introducing pandemic, more than billion Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), the Seamless Summer Option (SSO), and In March 2020, schools across the new ones: staffing limitations, additional breakfasts were served through the regular school year school Breakfast country shuttered in response to the transportation needs, limited access to SFSP, SSO, and SBP combined, a Program combined, a decrease of pandemic, and a majority of school meal sites during remote learning days, decrease of million, or million, or percent, when compared districts provided instruction virtually or and extreme supply chain disruptions.

6 All percent, when compared to to billion in the 2018 2019 school year. through a hybrid model for part or all of of these challenges and more have further billion in the 2018 2019 school year. the 2020 2021 school This shift stretched already tight school budgets and resources. Despite the creativity and ` Lunch saw an even more dramatic away from students being physically drop: During the 2020 2021 school in school caused significant new hard work of school nutrition departments to Reach children with breakfasts and year, almost billion lunches were challenges for schools to provide meals ALMOST lunches regardless of what the school served through SFSP, SSO, and NSLP. billion that families could still access. day looks like, school meals have lost combined, a decrease of billion, or Nationwide child nutrition waivers important ground when compared to pre- percent, when compared to lunches were served through SFSP, were issued by the Department pandemic participation levels.

7 Billion in the 2018 2019 school year. SSO, and the regular school year of Agriculture (USDA) that spring that national school Lunch Program have been key to supporting continued 1 Food Research & Action Center. (2019). school Meals are Essential for Student Health and Learning. Available at: combined, a decrease of billion, or access to Breakfast and Lunch as wp-content/ Accessed on January 3, 2022. percent, when compared to communities struggle with and adapt 2 Food Research & Action Center. ( ). Food Insufficiency During COVID-19 (webpage). Available at: billion in the 2018 2019 school year. foodinsufficiencycovid19. Accessed on January 3, 2022. to the ongoing public health crisis. The 3 Education Week. (2020). Map: Where Were Schools Required to Be Open for the 2020-21 school Year?

8 Available at: https://www. flexibilities provided by the waivers have Accessed on January 18, 2022. 2 THE Reach OF Breakfast AND Lunch : A LOOK AT PANDEMIC AND PRE-PANDEMIC PARTICIPATION | FEBRUARY 2022 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CONTINUED. ` A gap in participation between Breakfast and Lunch meals support the economies of scale that are critical to Most impactful has been the opportunity for schools remained but decreased during the pandemic. the financial viability of the school Nutrition Programs. to offer meals to all children at no charge, an option This was driven by the percent decrease in In addition, school nutrition departments will need that has been critical during the pandemic. In order Lunch participation in the 2020 2021 school year ongoing support from USDA and policymakers to to fully overcome the educational, health, and compared to the 2018 2019 school year.

9 Recover from the financial and operational challenges economic impacts of the pandemic on children and These national trends are reflected in nearly every created by the pandemic. The waivers that have been families, and the financial challenges created by the state and the District of Columbia. As states and critical to maintaining school meal operations must pandemic for school nutrition departments, offering school districts make plans for the 2022 2023 school remain available as long as needed. Similarly, the Breakfast and Lunch at no charge to all students year, the expansion strategies that worked before the funding provided in the Consolidated Appropriations should remain the new normal for all schools pandemic, such as Breakfast after the bell programs, Act to offset the reduced participation in spring 2020, across the country.

10 Enacting state Breakfast and Lunch legislation the higher reimbursement rate provided by SFSP As the country approaches the second anniversary of as a vehicle for change, increasing stakeholder under the SSO waiver during the 2020 2021 school the COVID-19 pandemic, school meals are at a critical engagement, and improving the quality and appeal of year, and the much-needed $ billion that USDA crossroads. Now is the time to consider the role that meals served during the school day, offer important has made available to help overcome the supply these programs have played and should play in strategies to help school Nutrition Programs recover chain challenges during the current school year have supporting children's health and well-being moving from the financial challenges caused by the pandemic.