AASA Urges Inclusion of Child Nutrition Provisions in FY23 Spending Bill

Today, AASA sent a letter to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Ranking Member John Boozman (R-AR) urging them to include critical child nutrition provisions in the FY23 appropriations package. The letter was co-signed by the Association of School Business Officials, National Rural Education Advocacy Coalition, School Nutrition Association and Urban School Food Alliance.

These recommendations, if enacted, would have a minimal financial cost, if any, but would significantly improve the day-to-day operations for school food authorities across the country: 

• Streamline meal pattern requirements across all nutrition programs in schools–
• Establish a single application for all federal nutrition programs in a single district
• Return to a 5-year Administrative Review Cycle
• Permanently waive paid lunch equity (PLE) pricing requirements for districts with break-even or positive food service balances
• Maintaining the Keep Kids Fed Act (KKFA) federal meal reimbursement rates  
• Direct National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to conduct a study on a new poverty indicator/metric for K–12 students
• Explore solutions to address unpaid meal debt 

Read the full letter here.