Free meals for kids won’t end when the year does.

The USDA announced in October the free meals provided to all children will continue until the end of the school year. For Park County School District 1 that means May 27.

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said at the time of the announcement the extension of the program was part of his department’s commitment that children have access to meals as parents and communities deal with the COVID pandemic.

According to Mary Jo Lewis, business services coordinator for the school district, there are an average of 1,084 lunches and around 250 breakfasts served each day through the USDA program. Powell Valley Healthcare will continue to provide meals through May 28 to other children not enrolled in school through the same time frame. At that partner site, between 50 and 65 breakfasts and the same number of lunches are provided each weekday, Lewis said.

“These waiver extensions are great news for America’s students and the school nutrition professionals working so hard to support them throughout this pandemic,” said School Nutrition Association President Reggie Ross, SNS. “Families struggling to make ends meet can be assured that their students will have access to healthy school meals. School meal programs can remain focused on safely meeting nutritional needs of children in their communities without having to worry about burdensome regulations. ”

Prior to the most recent extension, the program was set to expire at year’s end. Other programs may step in at the end of the school year to continue to providing no cost meals to children through the end of June at more than 90,000 sites around the nation.