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.
