Perdue on School Closures and Meals Pt 2

Perdue on School Closures and Meals Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I’m Bob Larson. During school closures caused by the coronavirus, schools can leverage their participation in one of USDA’s summer meal programs to provide meals at no cost to students.

Those meals would be served in a group setting, but, according to Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue before a House Appropriations hearing, in a public health emergency, the USDA has the authority to waive the group meal requirements …

PERDUE … “Back in the H1-N1, you may remember that you all authorized kind of a P-SNAP, which was a pandemic SNAP. It was authorized for one year. I’m not sure it was ever really funded or utilized, but that may be something you may want to consider as we look at the here now.”

But, Perdue says he’s pretty sure we won’t have to do that …

PERDUE … “There are long-standing SNAP regulations that are called “good cause,” and states have the discretion to determine good cause. Obviously, if your job says you can’t come to work or you’re sick in that way, that good cause would eliminate the need for work requirements under this rule.”

Given our situation, Perdue says that’s fairly good news …

PERDUE … “So, that will be under the discretion of the states to determine that good cause is already there and we wouldn’t have to do anything different that way other that those folks that are impacted by the coronavirus. Usually our jobs or our own health would be fulfilling those work requirements.”

This announcement is effective immediately and will cover efforts triggered by school closings through June 30th.

For more information on Food and Nutrition Service programs, go to https://www.fns.usda.gov/disaster/pandemic … For more information about the coronavirus response across USDA … www.usda.gov/coronavirus.

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