St. Johns County has a plan to reduce free meals for students to help deal with food service ‘crisis’

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Between proviso concatenation issues, nutrient shortages and higher demand, determination is simply a nationwide occupation getting meals to students.

“It’s a crisis. We person a batch of request and we person a batch of students to feed,” said St. Johns County Director of Food and Nutrition Services Sean Prevatt.

The St. Johns County School District said it served fractional a cardinal lunches and a quarter-million breakfasts to students past period alone.

Prevatt said the occupation started astatine the opening of the pandemic and has not fto up since.

“It’s beauteous overmuch each we deliberation astir each day, each time trying to unafraid nutrient for pupil meals,” Prevatt said.

Prevatt said the district’s declaration with U.S. Foodservice ends Dec. 31 and it is present scrambling to find a caller one. St. Johns County is portion of a 30-district bargaining radical successful the authorities that is trying to find a caller nutrient distributor, helium told the schoolhouse committee Tuesday.

St. Johns County is not alone.

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Duval County Public Schools said it is besides experiencing merchandise and staffing shortages.

In a statement, the territory said it had to “slightly set the fig of choices connected our menus and trim immoderate offerings to guarantee our cafeteria employees are focused connected feeding time.”

In Clay County, the schoolhouse territory said “Food shortages are occurring wrong our schoolhouse territory and aggregate substitutions are being made play successful bid to accommodate some meal and luncheon menus.”

Clay County is besides experiencing shortages with insubstantial products.

“We are presently procuring assorted types of insubstantial supplies, specified arsenic nutrient trays, done exigency purchases,” the territory said.

Currently, students nationwide tin get escaped luncheon careless of income presumption aft the USDA extended the programme done June 2022.

St. Johns County said the lone mode it tin support up with request astatine this constituent is to extremity that programme successful the district, which Prevatt believes volition chopped the fig of meals they service by arsenic overmuch arsenic 30%.

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“We’re reasoning extracurricular the container and extracurricular that container arsenic good to effort and travel up with antithetic schemes and antithetic ways to procure nutrient and get the meals to students, it’s conscionable a hard happening close now. Something nary of america person had to experience,” said Prevatt.

Prevatt said the territory volition not beryllium ending escaped lunches for everyone overnight, alternatively they volition modulation backmost to families having to use for escaped and reduced meals arsenic they did earlier the pandemic.

Parents tin use for escaped and reduced luncheon by visiting mealapps.stjohns.k12.fl.us/lfserver/MEALAPPS.

Duval and Clay told News4Jax astatine this constituent they person nary plans to extremity escaped luncheon for each students.

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