Families of students attending Department of Defense Education Activity schools can apply for free or reduced price school meals during the shutdown, which has affected the income of many military and DOD civilian families. The eligibility is based on income and family size, as required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Eligibility continues as long as the household income qualifies under the USDA thresholds, until the end of the school year, said Julie Mitchell, spokesman for AAFES. Overseas, AAFES provides DOD school meal support, serving 20,000 school meals daily at 73 DOD schools in seven countries.
“If income returns to previous levels after the shutdown, families are expected to update their application or status, but there is no automatic expiration of benefits when the shutdown ends,” she said.
Parents can visit the linqconnect.com/public/meal-application/newsubmit and search for “AAFES DoDEA” to submit an application online.
Information was not immediately available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the status of funding for school meals programs in the United States, where many military children attend school. However, the School Nutrition Association cited an Oct. 24 memo from the USDA stating that $23 billion in tariff funds was transferred to USDA’s Child Nutrition Program accounts to carry out National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program and Child and Adult Care Feeding Program during the shutdown.
That association is in close touch with the USDA and state agencies to monitor potential shutdown impacts.
The School Nutrition Association is also encouraging its members to promote the free and reduced-price meal applications in their communities, to help federal workers and contractors affected by the furlough or recent federal reduction in force.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.