Implementation of the Nationwide Waiver to Allow Specific School Meal Pattern Flexibility for School Year 2021-2022

In response to the nationwide supply chain disruptions, the USDA announced in September 2021 that up to $1.5 billion would be distributed to states and school districts to help endure supply chain-related challenges.4 These funds, while widely celebrated by advocates and school nutrition stakeholders alike, support procurement, not staffing or administration of the waivers.5 To understand the real. [...] Methodology Survey design The survey questions asked respondents to report the overall number of SY 21-22 meal pattern waiver requests received by each state to date in SY 21-22, the number of requests the agency approved, the number of requests the agency denied, the current number of requests still pending, and the estimated time needed to process current pending requests. [...] Finally, the survey evaluated whether respondents had any suggested changes to the SY 21-22 meal pattern waiver to ensure that healthy, balanced meals are accessible to all students during the school year. [...] CSPI targeted these types of school nutrition representatives as they would be expected to be the points of contact for school districts requesting waivers and thus have the knowledge needed to answer the questions in the survey. [...] Figure 3 The guidance and technical assistance USDA provided to my agency on implementation of the Nationwide Waiver to Allow Specific School Meal Pattern Flexibility for School Year 2021-2022 is sufficient for my agency to process the waiver applications.