Thread by @Reuters

This summer, millions of U.S. families have relied on a school meal program that the government has made less restrictive. It’s been a key social safety net experiment during the pandemic. But its future is uncertain reut.rs/3AtTxmy 1/6

Loosened rules allow families to pick up food from school districts to bring home to their children, instead of requiring kids to eat on site. There are also fewer limits on who is eligible reut.rs/3AtTxmy 2/6

The program allows parents like James Terry in Michigan to quickly pick up meals and return to work, and for grandparents or neighbors to get food for kids who can’t leave home. It’s helped stave off historically high rates of hunger among children reut.rs/3AtTxmy 3/6

For Mando Martinez, who helps support his daughter, a single mother, and his 12-year-old grandson, the couple of bags of food he picks up weekly in Chicago saves the family on a tight budget more than $100 each month reut.rs/3AtTxmy 4/6

But the waivers helping families access school meals are set to expire in June 2022, potentially jolting communities that have come to rely on them reut.rs/3AtTxmy 5/6

After more than two years of federally funded meals, superintendent Colleen Pacatte worries that her middle-income, suburban Chicago school district will have to fund school meals for everyone, or ask parents to pay for lunches themselves reut.rs/3AtTxmy 6/6