(Washington, D.C., May 5, 2020) – Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced a major expansion of Meals to You, USDA’s innovative partnership with the Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, McLane Global, and PepsiCo, to feed low-income kids in rural areas. The initiative will now serve nearly 5 million meals per week to rural children impacted by COVID-19-related school closures – five times its original goal.
“Uncertain and difficult times call for unprecedented actions and big picture ideas. Rural children affected by school closures faced food insecurity, but these great American groups and companies stepped up to help their fellow countrymen by delivering boxes of food across the country,” said Secretary Sonny Perdue. “This program has been so successful and faced such high demand that we are expanding to five million meals a week. Our partnership to feed kids embodies President Trump’s whole of America approach to tackling the coronavirus by utilizing the best of America – private sector ingenuity with public sector backing.”
“We are grateful to be a part of an innovative team made up of both the public and private sectors motivated by the strong desire to help our neighbors in need. We hope that the boxes of food will nourish children and communicate to their families that they are not in this tough circumstance alone,” said Jeremy Everett, Executive Director, Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty.
“This USDA-funded program has been a lifeline to thousands of students across rural America that would otherwise go hungry during this challenging period,” said Denton McLane, Chairman of McLane Global. “We’ve shifted to a 24-hour production schedule across all locations to meet the demand, and couldn’t be prouder of our partners, employees and the people on the ground working to ensure these meals get to those who need it most.”
“We're proud to partner with the USDA and Baylor to deliver meals directly to students who need them now more than ever,” said Matt Smith, Senior Director of Food for Good at PepsiCo. “Since 2009, we’ve been operating a U.S. nutrition program within PepsiCo called Food for Good that has delivered more than 30 million nutritious meals to children through afterschool and summer programs. In this time when millions of children are affected by school closures, it is a privilege to bring our scale and experience to this innovative partnership to serve our neighbors in need nationwide.”
Background:
Initially, Meals to You aimed to deliver nearly 1 million meals per week to students eligible for free and reduced-price meals in a limited number of rural schools closed due to COVID-19. But that goal has been quickly surpassed. Meals to You has already shipped nearly 3.5 million meals to the homes of children in 12 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
USDA is hearing directly from families about how much this program means to them. “I just wanted to say ‘An Unmeasurable Amount of Thank You’s’ are being sent to you and the entire teams it took to coordinate, prepare, and distribute these meals across my community,” said a mother from rural Texas. “I sincerely appreciate the incredible amount of effort it took for this to happen and I’m indebted to you and your teams! Thank you for making a difference in my household without even knowing who I am (we’re a family of 5 with one parent working with reduced wages).”
In the last few weeks, 23 additional states and Puerto Rico have requested to participate in Meals to You, so the partnership is now quickly ramping up to serve five million meals per week to help meet growing demand. With the initial weeks of the program having been a huge success, USDA worked closely with partners to substantially increase capacity. Thirteen of those states are approved and have families either enrolling or in the final stages of verification, while ten additional states and Puerto Rico have recently started the application process.
Meals to You boxes contain 20 nutritious meals – 10 breakfasts and 10 lunches – to cover the meals children would normally receive at school over two school weeks. Foods contained in the boxes meet USDA’s Summer Food Service Program meal standards and may include items like milk, fruit cups, cereal, whole-grain crackers, and chili. Boxes are delivered directly to children’s doorsteps via the U.S. Postal Service and other delivery services.
The Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty continues to work closely with states interested in the initiative and can now add more states to the program to meet continued demand. In the meantime, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) continues to provide additional options and flexibilities to feed children during the COVID-19 outbreak. Some examples include:
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Issuing 21 nationwide waivers for child nutrition programs to allow for innovative methods of meal service and distribution during this unprecedented crisis pandemic;
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Launching the Meals 4 Kids site finder in both English and Spanish to help families across America find free meals for kids during the public health emergency; and
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Approving Pandemic-EBT in 19 states, which provides food assistance to families of children eligible for free or reduced-price meals dealing with school closures.
FNS administers 15 nutrition assistance programs that leverage American’s agricultural abundance to ensure children and low-income individuals and families have nutritious food to eat. FNS also co-develops the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which provide science-based nutrition recommendations and serve as the cornerstone of federal nutrition policy.
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