USDA responds with free school meal and help for farmers

USDA announced North Carolina schools affected by Hurricane Florence will now be able to feed students free school meals provided by USDA’s National School Lunch Program through October 26. This and additional measures will potentially benefit 31 school districts and over 284,000 children. USDA has allowed the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina to operate summer meal programs during this unanticipated school closure. As part of this special flexibility, the food bank may serve meals that vary from the program’s regular standards. Due to the damage to roadways, communities, and other infrastructure, the food bank may also allow children to take meals home to eat through September 30.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue stated, “USDA has important roles in both response to hurricanes and recovery efforts. USDA has staffed the Regional Response Coordination Center in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Region IV, which covers eight states including North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. It will provide 24-hour staffing to the FEMA National Response Coordination Center, and has personnel supporting the North Carolina and South Carolina State Emergency Operations Centers. Our farmers and ranchers take financial risks every year to help feed and clothe the U.S. and the world, and a hurricane makes their situations even more perilous.”

USDA recently launched a disaster assistance discovery tool through its new website Farmers.gov that walks producers through five questions to help them identify personalized results of which USDA disaster assistance programs can help them recover after a natural disaster.

The USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) administers many safety-net programs to help producers recover from eligible losses by provides funding and technical assistance for farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate farmland damaged by natural disasters.