Public schools have been scrambling to feed students even when the pandemic has kept them home, which has renewed a call for universal school meals. The idea is to eliminate the administrative complexities of the $18 billion program, and make healthy food available to all students regardless of their family’s income, in the way bus rides or textbooks are. (Under a Covid-related order from the Trump administration, all children have temporary access to free school meals through the end of the school year.)
The department could help heal political divisions by making it easier for schools to use locally grown food and make meals healthier, said Curt Ellis, the chief executive officer of FoodCorps and among a group pushing for a White House summit on child nutrition during Biden’s first 100 days.