School nutrition trending: Schools find creative ways to feed students during coronavirus, USDA relaxes meal regs

This month in K-12 school nutrition trending, coronavirus's impact changed the way school nurtition departments operated.

On March 26, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced additional flexibilities to make it easier for school foodservice teams nationwide to feed kids during the COVID-19 national emergency. States will be allowed to waive meal pattern requirements, so local operators can create meals with the foods they have available. In addition, the administrative deadlines associated with the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) to ease burdens on schools closed due to COVID-19 have been delayed.

In New Hampshire, Londonderry Director of Dining Services Amanda Venezia launched a districtwide remote learning meal program for all students once schools in the district completely shut down.

In Indiana, Christine Clarahan MS, SNS, RDN, director of food and nutrition services for School City of Hammond, Ind., and her foodservice team of 39 employees are following social distancing protocols while feeding about 2,000 students each day by using six drive-thru setups.

See what else was trending on Food Management this month.