Staffing Up: Strategies for Working Through Labor Shortage Challenges

With nationwide labor and supply shortages impacting every corner of the economy, more schools are looking to overcome hurdles with innovative ideas and approaches. No Kid Hungry New York's new resource provides strategies that school districts across the country have been using to staff up and persevere through this challenging time, including recruiting volunteers, expanding staff benefits, utilizing creative logistics, and advertising at every opportunity.

We want to hear from you! Have a promising practice or strategy that has worked for your school district? Send us what has worked and we’ll share your strategy to help other school nutrition professionals.

ICYMI: Afterschool Meals “Lunch and Learn” Recording

View the recording from our recent call focused on opportunities to provide free, healthy afterschool meals to fuel learning beyond the school day. Schools can apply for afterschool meals at any time of year, even when programs are already underway. This school year, programs in all areas of the state may qualify. Click here to learn more, or email Krista.Hesdorfer@HungerSolutionsNY.org to talk one-on-one about opportunities to provide afterschool nutrition.

No Kid Hungry Breakfast After the Bell Grant

The No Kid Hungry New York Breakfast After the Bell Grant Opportunity provides funding to support school districts across New York with the purchase of equipment, materials and initiatives facilitating Breakfast After the Bell delivery models (such as Breakfast In the Classroom, Grab and Go, or Second Chance Breakfast) in an effort to increase student participation in school breakfast.

Grant applications are due April 15, 2022. Click here for more info and the link to apply.

Throughout the pandemic, schools and community-based organizations across New York have played a critical role in ensuring kids’ access to healthy food, aided by nationwide waivers allowing important flexibilities in child nutrition program operations. These included options to provide grab-and-go or delivered meals, and a waiver of area eligibility that enabled summer and afterschool meal programs to operate in all areas, not just locations where 50% or more of the community’s children qualify for free or reduced-price school meals.

As of early December, most eligible children have been issued their Pandemic-EBT (P-EBT) benefits for the 2020-2021 school year. NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) is still working to issue benefits to eligible children in private schools throughout the state, and in New York City charter schools. If a family has not received a benefit they believe they are eligible for, they can call the NYS P-EBT Helpline at 1-833-452-0096 or fill out the P-EBT information form.