NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A new study from the School Nutrition Association shows school leaders across the country are running into challenges with providing healthy meals for children.
In the study almost all of the more than 1,300 school meal directors across the country reported challenges with rising costs. They want to tackle the issue now, so it doesn't affect your children's meal quality.
A group of directors are meeting with lawmakers this spring. One of the things they plan to talk about is the need for more funding for school meals since pandemic dollars expired.
The data shows the Southeast U.S. school nutrition agencies are having the most challenges to get specific items. There were difficulties getting 7 out of 10 basic categories in the region.
In those categories, our region reported having more significant difficulty in getting items like milk at almost twice the rate of the overall sample. Chris Derico, the president of the school nutrition association says it's not been easy adjusting to the rising costs.
"Obviously our grocery bills went up. But then that also turns into equipment purchases. When it's time to replace equipment, update equipment, those have skyrocketed as well," said Derico.
School meal directors will be asking Congress to increase meal reimbursement rates as a start and according to the SNA individual school districts are also meeting in person this month to share cost-saving ideas like sourcing food from local farmers.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
