School nutrition trending: Sodexo's K-12 planning, USDA extends school meal waivers

As many K-12 schools across the country wrapped up for the school year, planning for summer became the top priority for many school nutrition programs while summer camps and local pools remain closed.

The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, announced the extension of three nationwide waivers through August 31 to give child nutrition program operators flexibility to continue to feed children while promoting social distancing and keeping families safe. Throughout the pandemic, schools and local program sponsors have used flexibilities provided by USDA to find creative ways to feed students such as setting up drive-thru pickups and delivering meals on bus routes.

As a wrap-up to the year, the latest School Nutrition Survey asked 1,894 school districts’ foodservice teams for updates; finds more than 134 million meals served in April, median estimated loss per district tops $2.35 million in largest districts, painting a sobering picture of district food service financial impacts but an impressive picture of the work being done.

While some prepared for the summer, others planned for what the 2020-2021 school year may look like.

Sodexo is one major group planning for next year. Here's a point-by-point look inside the food service contract management company’s “building block” approach to student menus when school begins again, whatever that may look like. This includes grab-and-go menu items and individually wrapped products to name a few.

Find out what else was trending in school nutrition this month on Food Management.