The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced Monday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is extending a suite of nationwide waivers for summer meal programs. This means public schools can continue serving free meals to all children into the fall.

The move will help ensure children have access to nutritious food as the country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The USDA has been using the congressionally-appropriated funding that has been made available, and the free meals will continue until Dec. 31, 2020 or until the money runs out.

“As our nation reopens and people return to work, it remains critical our children continue to receive safe, healthy and nutritious food. During the COVID-19 pandemic, USDA has provided an unprecedented amount of flexibilities to help schools feed kids through school meal programs. We are extending summer meal program flexibilities for as long as we can, legally and financially,” said Secretary Perdue.

“I’m very happy that they’v...