Chairman Scott Statement on Senate Republicans Blocking Extension for School Meal Waivers

Press Release

Chairman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA-03) released the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked an extension of school meal waivers in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 omnibus spending package.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, Congress provided schools with the flexibility they needed to ensure they could serve hungry students. This relief allowed an additional 10 million students to access free school meals each day. While the country is on the road to recovery, schools and their students are still feeling the impact of the pandemic. The last thing we should do is create chaos for school leaders by prematurely revoking these necessary school meal waivers and depriving students of the nutrition they need to help them learn and grow.

"Receiving a nutritious meal should be part of the educational experience. By temporarily extending eligibility for free school meals, we would help eliminate not only costly, time-consuming paperwork, but also lunch shaming, which stigmatizes a student for not being able to afford the food they need. I would rather provide free school meals to students who might otherwise be able to afford it than deny hungry students a school meal just because they did not complete the necessary paperwork."

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