The food day begins early for the poorest students of Los Angeles Unified School District – with a breakfast available before the start of the course. Then there is breakfast for everyone in the classroom, later followed by a snack, a lunch, more snacks for programs after school and sometimes a dinner returned to the house for the child.
Everything is free.
“I see Si Faims who want two breakfasts,” said Stephanie Levinson, a third -year teacher at San Fernando primary school. “This is a huge help for breakfast – especially with food costs.” She estimated that around three -quarters of the students count on free school lunch.
More than 80% of unified students of the are eligible for a free or reduced school meal – mainly funded by $ 363 million per year in federal food aid that the district receives.
But this food aid seems to have become another piece of chess in the game between California and the efforts of the Trump administration to put pressure on the state and local officials to follow its edicts.
In an imprecise warning letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, the head of the American department of American agriculture has conditioned his aid to California to respect Trump’s directives – and cited a federal survey on a law of the State which prohibits schools from automatically notify the families of student and student identity changes and and to ensure that teachers of reprisals to support students’ rights.
A state education manager said the threat “flies in the face of our moral obligation to take care of the children of our country”.
Federal officials argue that Californian law violates a federal law which guarantees parents’ access to their child’s school files. State representatives replied that Californian law does not violate federal laws because it does not affect parents’ right to request and receive files.
The Department of Agriculture finances research and the venerable youth development program 4-H, but its main contribution linked to school is paying for food to feed children with low-income families during their school. The annual total of food aid linked to the USDA school for California is more than $ 3 billion per year.
The USDA “in the direction of President Donald J. Trump … undertakes an examination of his research and other funding linked to education in California to comply with the Constitution, federal laws … and the priorities of the Trump administration,” wrote the Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins in her letter of March 27.
The USDA did not respond to several Times requests requesting an development on the threat of financing in its letter to Newsom.
In an independent action, the ministry has eliminated an auxiliary food program – started after the COVVI -19 pandemic epidemic – worth $ 1 billion per year nationally. This program funded the purchase of high quality fresh products from local producers.
The USDA said programs are an inheritance of the pandemic and no longer supported the agency’s priorities.
State officials referred to this pending cut in response to Rollins’ warning letter.
“Secretary Rollins leads to a hunting rifle on an investigation by the Ministry of Education in nowhere – everything to distract his billion shameful dollars of $ 1 billion in discounts for school meals, food banks and farmers,” said Izzy Gardon, director of newsom communications. “USDA actions reduce the quality of food in our schools and keep meals away from hungry families through the Golden State and our country.”
At a press conference on Thursday, Newsom did not specifically add up the questions raised in the letter from Rollins, calling him more a “press release” than an investigation “for common ground”. He also alluded to “hundreds and hundreds” of real and potential threats to the state of the federal government: “we take everything seriously”.
In its response, California Department of Education has referred to Elon Musk, who runs a budgetary group and Slashing authority by Trump, the official department of government efficiency.
“Secretary Rollins and Trump-Musk administration have already left schools and family farms after cutting local food programs for schools,” said Liz Sanders, communications director of the State of Education Department. “Now they bring a partisan policy directly to the cafeteria table, threatening the food security of our children as a mechanism to force states to comply with a national ideological program. It is quite false. “
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
How California feeds students
The fate of food aid in the school district is complicated by a Californian law which, from the 2022-23 school year, guaranteed breakfast and free lunch for all students-whatever the income of a family. Newsom signed legislation with the understanding that the federal government would pay most of the costs.
Current estimates are that the state will pay approximately $ 1.8 billion this year and federal authorities, around 2.7 billion dollars for breakfast and lunch – with other federal funds paying additional food aid.
The prospects are disturbing for the leaders of the local school district such as the Schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho. The elimination awaiting the Table Farm program is quite bad and one concern among many, he said.
“We have made enormous progress in recent years only in terms of guarantee of healthier food options, from the farm to the table, more fruits and vegetables available to our children,” said Carvalho. “A gap compared to this, thanks to a cessation of this type of financing, would undermine the quality of the food that we currently offer. He would also have a deleterious impact on local farmers who depend on the company they have with the school district. ”
Critics say that the Trump administration intentionally sets out confusion in its pressure campaign to influence the actions taken by school districts, colleges and states. They also accuse Trump of using children – or food for poor children in this case – as pawns for a political lever effect.
Trump officials and supporters return to this analysis, saying that families and students were injured by a left -wing radical program – the one who also prematurely sexualizes children and indoctrine to change their gender.
The USDA will support Rollins in its letter: “Efforts to vigorously protect parents’ rights and ensure that students are not victims of a radical transgender ideology which often leads to family alienation and irreversible medical interventions.”
The staff editor Taryn Luna has contributed to this report.
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