All students ages 18 and under are able to eat lunch for free at Fannin County schools as of Tuesday, September 8, following an announcement from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“It is our hope that this will relieve some of the financial hardships felt by many in our community,” Fannin School System Director of School Nutrition Candice Sisson said. “We are really excited about this. … We’ve already seen an increase in our student lunch and breakfast participation since Tuesday of this week.”
The school system has begun adjusting account balances back to September 1, so that funds paid will be reflected on student accounts for the future.
USDA has approved this through December 31 of this year or as long as funds are available.
“As our nation reopens and people return to work, it remains critical our children continue to receive safe, healthy, and nutritious food,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, USDA has provided an unprecedented amount of flexibilities to help schools feed kids through the school meal programs, and today, we are also extending summer meal program flexibilities for as long as we can, legally and financially.
“We appreciate the incredible efforts by our school food service professionals year in and year out, but this year we have an unprecedented situation. This extension of summer program authority will employ summer program sponsors to ensure meals are reaching all children – whether they are learning in the classroom or virtually – so they are fed and ready to learn, even in new and ever-changing learning environments.”
The school system serves over 2,800 students in Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade. On average, they serve 1,300 breakfast meals, 1,600 school lunches and 30 after school snacks.
Following COVID-19 related school closures, the system’s nutrition employees served 68,584 breakfast and lunch meals during the months of March, April and May.
Each school nutrition department received GOLD Shake It Up status again this year.
The Shake It Up initiative is a movement to “change the cult of school nutrition by focusing on three key areas: Tasty meals, Friendly Cafeterias and Happy Schools.”
The initiative was created by the Georgia Department of Education School Nutrition Team in partnership with the State School Superintendent and State Board of Education.